The 1979 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held in Duisburg, West Germany.
The men's competition consisted of six Canadian (single paddle, open boat) and nine kayak events. Three events were held for the women, all in kayak.
This was the fifteenth championships in canoe sprint. It was where an incident later referred to as The Česiunas Affair took place when Soviet-born Lithuanian canoer Vladas Česiūnas appeared at the event as a spectator only to vanish. The West German government claimed Česiunas had defected, but the former canoer had returned to the Soviet Union voluntarily several weeks later. During Česiunas' disappearance, he would speak in favor of the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, more than two months before the Soviet–Afghan War, but later returned to the Soviet Embassy in Bonn. The Soviets toned down their rhetoric about Česiunas' "disappearance" in the West and changed his mind all the while West Germany continued to maintain that he had been kidnapped.
Medal summary Men's Canoe Event Gold Time Silver Time Bronze TimeC-1 500 m C-1 1000 m C-1 10000 m C-2 500 m Ivan PatzaichinPetre Capusta Sergey PetrenkoAleksandr Vinogradov Marek ŁbikPiotr PawlowskiC-2 1000 m Vasiliy JurtzhenkoYuri Lobanov Tamás BudayOszkár Frey Toma SimionovGheorghe SimionovC-2 10000 m Vasiliy JurtzhenkoYuri Lobanov Cherasim MunteanuGheorge Titu Tamás BudayLászló Vaskúti
Kayak Event Gold Time Silver Time Bronze TimeK-1 500 m K-1 1000 m K-1 10000 m K-2 500 m Vladimir ParfenovichSergei Chukhray Bernd OlbrichtRüdiger Helm Alain LebasFrancis HervieuK-2 1000 m Einar RasmussenOlaf Søyland Zoltán BakóIstván Szabó Sergei ChukhrayVladimir TainikovK-2 10000 m Nicușor EșanuIon Bîrlădeanu Nikolay AstapkovichVladimir Romanovsky Herminio MenéndezLuis Gregorio RamosK-4 500 m Bernd DuvigneauHarald MargJürgen DittrichRoland Graupner Sergey ZhinkarenkoIonas SautraSergei ChukhrayVladimir Tainikov Ryszard OborskiDaniel WełnaGrzegorz KołtanGrzegorz ŚledziewskiK-4 1000 m Bernd DuvigneauRüdiger HelmHarald MargBernd Olbricht Ryszard OborskiDaniel WełnaGrzegorz KołtanGrzegorz Śledziewski Aleksandr ShaparenkoSergei NagornyiAleksandr AvdeyevIonas SautraK-4 10000 m Aleksandr ShaparenkoSergey NikolskiyVladimir MorozovAleksandr Avdeyev Andrzej KlimaszewskiKrzysztof LepiankaZbigniew TorzeckiZdzisław Szubski Tamás BenkőPéter KonecsnyLászló SzabóZoltán Romhany
Women's Kayak Event Gold Time Silver Time Bronze TimeK-1 500 m K-2 500 m Natalya KalashinkovaNina Doroh Marion RösigerMartina Bischof Agafia OrlovNatasia NichitovK-4 500 m Marion RösigerMartina BischofBirgit FischerRoswitha Eberl Galina AlekseyevaNadezhda TrachimenokTatyana KorzhunovaLarissa Nadviga Agafia OrlovNatasia NichitovMaria NicolaeAdriana Tarasov
Medals table
References ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 1: flatwater (now sprint): 1936-2007. ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936-2007. Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2008). "Canoeing: Men's Canadian Pairs 1000 Meters". In The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 493.