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Canadian Singles, 500 metres, Men

Date30 July – 1 August 1980
StatusOlympic
LocationGrebnoy kanal, Sportivny komplex Krylatskoye, Moskva
Participants11 from 11 countries

The C-1 500 event at the World Championships had seen three different canoeists take the crown over the past three years, Lipat Varabiev of Romania, Lyubomir Lyubenov of Bulgaria, and Serhiy Postriekhin of the Soviet Union, all of whom were present at the 1980 Summer Olympics. Of the three, only Lyubenov had won another recent World Championship medal (bronze in 1979), while Postriekhin was representing the defending Olympic champion and the 1977 and 1978 bronze medalist. Hungary, the 1978 World runner-up, sent Tamás Wichmann, who had won three Olympic medals in the C-1 and C-2 1000, while West Germany’s Ulli Eicke, the 1977 and 1979 World runner-up, was absent due to the American-led boycott of the Games. Finally, there was one returning medalist from the 1976 Olympics, Yugoslavia’s Matija Ljubek, who had earned bronze.

Four of these five men ended up in the same opening heat, in which Postriekhin, Varabiev, and Wichmann finished in that order, while Ljubek was last and advanced only as the slowest qualifier in the repêchage. Lyubenov, meanwhile, took the second, easier heat. The medal round came to an exciting conclusion as Bulgaria and the Soviet Union went neck and neck towards the finish line, with the latter edging out the former by a mere 0.12 seconds. Wichmann, meanwhile, had his own trouble with East Germany’s Olaf Heukrodt, at the time a relative unknown, who snuck ahead of the Hungarian and nabbed bronze by a margin of only 0.2 seconds. All of the podium finishers in this event won medals in another at the 1980 Games: Postriekhin and Lyubenov traded places in the C-1 1000, while Heukrodt took silver in the C-2 1000.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCR1RepFinal
11572Sergey PostrekhinURS1:54.13 (1 h1)1:53.37 (1)GoldOB
226Lyubomir LyubenovBUL1:54.31 (1 h2)1:53.49 (2)Silver
369Olaf HeukrodtGDR1:55.37 (2 h2)1:54.38 (3)Bronze
493Tamás WichmannHUN1:56.15 (3 h1)1:54.58 (4)
5107Marek ŁbikPOL1:55.60 (3 h2)1:55.90 (5)
641Timo GrönlundFIN1:56.49 (4 h1)1:57.92 (2)1:55.94 (6)
7127Lipat VarabievROU1:55.74 (2 h1)1:56.80 (7)
8143Radomír BlažíkTCH1:56.41 (4 h2)1:56.51 (1)1:56.83 (8)
9165Matija LjubekYUG2:01.20 (6 h1)1:58.25 (3)2:03.43 (9)
4 h1 r2/3135Thomas FalkSWE1:59.07 (5 h1)1:59.94 (4)
5 h1 r2/362Willie ReichensteinGBR2:09.37 (5 h2)2:09.86 (5)
DNS52Franck LambertFRA– (DNS h2)

Round One

Date30 July 1980 — 10:40
FormatTop three in each heat advanced to the final.

Heat #1

PosLaneCompetitorNOCTime250 m250-500 m
11Sergey PostrekhinURS1:54.1355.03 (1)59.10 (3)QOB
23Lipat VarabievROU1:55.7455.93 (2)59.81 (4)Q
35Tamás WichmannHUN1:56.1558.70 (5)57.45 (1)Q
46Timo GrönlundFIN1:56.4957.77 (3)58.72 (2)
54Thomas FalkSWE1:59.0759.04 (6)1:00.03 (5)
62Matija LjubekYUG2:01.2058.28 (4)1:02.92 (6)

Heat #2

PosLaneCompetitorNOCTime250 m250-500 m
14Lyubomir LyubenovBUL1:54.3154.97 (1)59.34 (2)Q
22Olaf HeukrodtGDR1:55.3755.66 (2)59.71 (3)Q
36Marek ŁbikPOL1:55.6056.64 (4)58.96 (1)Q
41Radomír BlažíkTCH1:56.4156.07 (3)1:00.34 (4)
53Willie ReichensteinGBR2:09.3758.91 (5)1:10.46 (5)
DNS5Franck LambertFRA– (–)– (–)

Repêchage

Date1 August 1980 — 10:30
FormatTop three in each heat advanced to the final.
PosLaneCompetitorNOCTime250 m250-500 m
13Radomír BlažíkTCH1:56.5154.85 (1)1:01.66 (4)Q
25Timo GrönlundFIN1:57.9257.29 (2)1:00.63 (1)Q
31Matija LjubekYUG1:58.2557.59 (3)1:00.66 (2)Q
44Thomas FalkSWE1:59.9459.21 (5)1:00.73 (3)
52Willie ReichensteinGBR2:09.8658.39 (4)1:11.47 (5)

Final Round

Date1 August 1980 — 16:30
PosLaneCompetitorNOCTime250 m250-500 m
15Sergey PostrekhinURS1:53.3754.12 (1)59.25 (4)OB
28Lyubomir LyubenovBUL1:53.4954.48 (2)59.01 (2)
39Olaf HeukrodtGDR1:54.3856.40 (7)57.98 (1)
42Tamás WichmannHUN1:54.5855.17 (4)59.41 (5)
54Marek ŁbikPOL1:55.9055.58 (5)1:00.32 (6)
61Timo GrönlundFIN1:55.9456.82 (8)59.12 (3)
73Lipat VarabievROU1:56.8055.96 (6)1:00.84 (7)
87Radomír BlažíkTCH1:56.8354.81 (3)1:02.02 (8)
96Matija LjubekYUG2:03.4359.41 (9)1:04.02 (9)