Article by Roxana Fleşeru – published on Saturday, August 23, 2025, 15:54 / updated on Saturday, August 23, 2025 16:02
Cătălin Chirilă (27 years old) ended on the fourth place of the canoe sample 1- 1,000 m at the Milan World Championships. The Romanian was passed in the last part of the Adolf Balasz race in Hungary.
Cătălin Chirilă presented on Saturday in the third world career final in the 1-1000 canoe sample, after a few complicated days on Lake Idralisco near Milan.
In fact, it was the end of a difficult year, in which he had to face several challenges. A year that followed the Paris Olympic Games, where the canoist did not take the fight for medals and in which there were changes in his technical team.
In Milan, Chirilă missed the presence in the final of 500 meters, but managed to qualify between the first nine on the Olympic distance (1,000 m).
In the final, he was assigned to the eighth corridor, with opponents on Wiktor Glazunow (Poland), Pablo Crespo (Spain), Shengyue Wu (China), Martin Fuksa (Czech), Olympic and World Champion of the Sample, Stefanos Dimopoulos (Greece) and David Bauschke (Germany).
The Romanian started slower, but it was the third at the control points from 250 m, 500 m and 750 m, but it was exceeded on the last part of the Adolf Balasz race.
Chirila ended the race in 3: 49.56, at 0.16 S of Hungarian. The Czech Martin Fuksa (3.46,09) defended his world title, competing the race from one end to the other, and the second place was ranked the Greek Stefanos Dimopoulus (3: 47.92).
Cătălin Chirilă is the European champion of the test.
Cătălin Chirilă won the final B to 500 m
The Romanian canoist missed on Thursday, on Lake Idralisco, the qualification in the fight for medals in the non -Olympic sample of Canoe 1 – 500 m, where he had been present on the podium in the last three editions of the World Championships.
Thus, he evolved on Friday afternoon in the final B, where he prevailed with a time of 1: 47.71, exceeding the Spanish Manuel Fontán (1: 48.55) and the German Adam Moritz (1: 49.47).
In the final of A, Russian Zahkar Petrov won the gold, Czech Martin Fuksa took the silver, and the Moldovan Sergei Tarnovschi Bronz.
Just a final of for Romania
Romania has participated in the World Kaiac-Canoe championships with eight athletes. Kaiacista Bianca Istrătescu stopped in the series of K1 – 1,000 m.
Georgel Bărăgău, Ioan Mihai Rotundu, Andrei Roşioru and Braulio Flores-Mateescu stopped in the semifinals at C4-500 m.
Ilie Sprîncean and Oleg Nuță will evolve on Sunday in the final B at C1-500 m. They ranked on Saturday in the fourth place in the first semi-final of the canoe 2-500 m, only the first three boats advancing in the fight.
Thus, Cătălin Chirilă was the only Romanian who entered a final in which medals were granted.
