Kayak Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

There was a strong field for the K-1 1000 at the 1968 Summer Olympics that included Oleksandr Shaparenko of the Soviet Union, the reigning European and World Champion, Sweden’s Rolf Peterson, the defending Olympic champion, and Erik Hansen of Denmark, who was the 1960 Olympic and 1963 European and World Champion, as well as the 1966 World and 1967 European runner-up and the 1961 European bronze medalist. Also in contention was Hungary’s Mihály Hesz, the 1964 Olympic runner-up and 1965 European bronze medalist. The opening heats were won by Peterson, Hansen, and Władysław Szuszkiewicz of Poland, while Shaparenko was runner-up to Szuszkiewicz and Hesz was third behind Peterson and Andrei Conţolenco of Romania. The results were similar in the semi-finals, except that Hesz was now third behind Hansen and Shaparenko. These efforts against such a strong field, however, perhaps tired the heat winners, as they did not perform as well in the medal round. The Hungarian mustered his reserves of strength in the final and took the gold medal with nearly a second to spare over the Soviet canoeist, who in turn was nearly a second in front of Hansen, while the rest of the competitors were far behind. In addition to his silver medal in this event, Shaparenko also earned gold in the K-2 1000.