Ognjen Filipović

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Ognjen Filipović (born 17 October 1973 in Sremska Mitrovica) is a Serbian flatwater canoer and current (2006) world champion in the kayak K4 200m sprint.

Racing in the individual (K1) 200m event he won the 1998 world championship bronze medal in Szeged, Hungary. The following year he was the silver medallist at the European championships in Zagreb, Croatia. At the Sydney Olympics he was a semi-finalist in the K1 500m.

In 2004, he was selected ahead of Igor Kovačić and Jozef Šoti to partner Dragan Zorić for the Athens Olympics. There being no 200m races at the Olympics, they competed in the K2 500m and 1000m. Although they were disappointed to be eliminated in the semi-finals, the partnership was retained for the 2005 season.

In July 2005, Filipović and Zorić won the bronze medal in the European championship 200m final. In August they went on to become world champions in Zagreb with a surprise victory ahead of three-times champions Duonela and Balciunas of Lithuania.

In 2006 Filipović and Zorić placed fifth in the K2 200m final at the European championships in Račice, Czech Republic. Filipović and Zorić had also teamed up with Milan Djenadić and Bora Sibinkić to form a specialist K4 200m crew. In August the new four defeated Serbia's number one K4 crew of Šoti / Stanojević / Ilić / Našagaćin to earn the right to represent Serbia at the World Championships in Szeged, Hungary..

The plan was a gamble; the new crew had been together for a bare two months, their new team-mates were experienced paddlers in domestic competition but Djenadić had only made his international debut at Račice (in the K1) and Sibinkić's only experience of a major championship was as a reserve at the 2002 Euro's. For Filipović and Zorić there would also be the problem of the compressed race-schedule at Szeged, with very little recovery time between the K2 and K4 races. Most of their rivals had opted to compete over one distance only. As events turned out, the gamble was amply justified. Filipović and Zorić won the bronze medal in their K2 final. Just twenty minutes later, they were back on the water in the K4 final, winning the gold medal ahead of the host nation (and defending champions) Hungary. Their winning time of 29.965 was the fastest-ever in a world championship final.

Filipović, nicknamed Ogi, is a member of the Čačak canoe club.