After three days of exciting races, with more than 650 participants from 64 nations in total, the Junior World Championships ended this afternoon with the 500m finals and semi-finals. There were no big surprises on the overall medals table. Hungary took the lead with five Gold medals and 16 medals in total, followed by Germany with four Gold medals and a total of ten medals and Russia with three Gold medals and a total of eight medals.

A maybe unexpected number four on the medals table was Kazakhstan with “only” three medals, all of them gold - an won by one single boat manned by the new Men’s C2 maestros, the brothers Sergey and Timofey Emelyanov. Not surprisingly, after having won their 3rd Gold medal, the 500m on Sunday afternoon, they looked pretty exhausted.

It was very difficult for us to do this race after the 200m finals this morning. We are very happy, but we do not have time to celebrate right now as we are going straight to the training camp for the Senior World Championships in Szeged from here.

Host country Germany also celebrated an overall winner with gold medals in all three distances. Tom Liebscher in his K1 boat was surrounded by officials, team mates and fans after every race, he kept calm – almost as if nothing had happened - and told us after his last win, “I am so happy and proud. You want to know how I managed to win at these three different distances? Well, I did not really specialize, I just trained hard for all distances.”

A small surprise was to see a Latin American country among the top ten on the list: Brazil placed eight on the medals table, with one Gold medal and one Silver medal for Isaquias Queiros Santos in the Men’s C1. Delighted with his overall success this year he said, “I was training a lot so I was expecting this medal. I competed in the YOG but my position was 7th so this is a good improvement, especially since this is my last year as a junior."

The last race and only Olympic discipline of this afternoon’s finals the 500m in Women’s K4 was won by host country Germany. Athlete Anna Kowald said after the race, “We were placed only 4th after the heats and so we decided that we had to win a medal. None of us thought at that point that we’d become World Champions.”

About 5,000 spectators watched this weekend’s races, and anyone we asked at the site was happy with the good atmosphere. Even in the semi-finals, but more so of course in the finals, one could hear fans and team mates cheering for their athletes from the grandstands.

For more information on the recently concluded 2011 ICF Junior Canoe Sprint World Championships, visit www.canoe-brandenburg.de.