Dzmitry Vaitsishkin

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Dzmitry Vaitsishkin (born 1985 in Homiel) is a Belarusian flatwater canoer and current (2006) world champion in the Canadian canoe C4 500m.

Vaitsishkin represented Belarus at the 2003 World Junior Championships in Komatsu, Japan, placing fifth in the individual (C1) 500m.

The Belarus senior C4 crew of Kurliandchyk / Zhukouski / Bahdanovich / Saponenko were regular medal winners at the major championships but in 2004 national coach Viktor Reneysky formed a second C4 crew for the European Championships in order to give his most promising teenage canoe sprinters their chance at senior level. Vaitsishkin was included and the new crew exceeded expectations by coming fourth in the C4 200m final, almost winning a medal.

For the 2005 season, Reneysky settled on a line-up of Rabchanka / Vaitsishkin / Shcharbak / Vauchetski. In July the young crew went to the European Under-23 European Championships in Plovdiv. Competing against athletes up to three years older than themselves they won the C4 1000m gold medal by a margin of four seconds and set a senior world record of 3:15.722. Ironically the previous record, which had stood for sixteen years, had been set by a USSR crew which included Reneysky. Vaitsishkin also won a bronze medal in the C4 500m and finished fifth in the C1 500m.

Two weeks later they competed at the senior European championships in Poznań, Poland, finishing fourth in the C4 1000m final.

At the 2005 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia, they were switched to the C4 500m event and won their first senior medal by finishing in second place behind Romania. Vaitsishkin also reached his first senior final as an individual, placing ninth in the C1 200m.

Despite being world record-holders Vaitsishkin and his team-mates were still officially only the number two crew in Belarus. At the start of the 2006 season however they beat their elders over all three distances in the Belarus Cup trial races, giving them the right to choose which distances to enter at the major championships. Vaitsishkin also won the C1 200m category.

At the 2006 European Championships in Račice, Czech Republic, they bettered their own C4 1000m world record time but had to settle for second place behind Germany. The following day however they claimed their first senior gold medal with victory in the C4 200m final.

At the 2006 World Championships, held in Szeged, Hungary they opted for the 500m instead, thus avoiding another meeting with the older, more physically mature, German crew. The decision paid off as the Belarus four won the 500m gold medal in a time of 1:31.820. They also took the silver medal in the 200m final, losing out to the Czech Republic by just 0.080 seconds.

Vaitsishkin is a student at the Gomel State University.