Michał Gajownik

Medal record
Men's canoe sprint
World Championships
Gold 2002 Seville C-4 1000 m
Gold 2005 Zagreb C-4 1000 m
Bronze 2005 Zagreb C-4 500 m

Michał Gajownik (15 December 1981 – 13 November 2009) was a Polish sprint canoer who competed from 2000 to 2006. He won three medals at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships with two golds (C-4 1000 m: 2002, 2005) and a bronze (C-4 500 m: 2005). He was born in Chrzanów.

Gajownik won silver medal in C-1 500 m in Junior European Championships in 1998, after year became C-2 500 m Junior World Championships silver medalist. The following year, at the age of only 19, he became senior European C-2 1000 m champion with Paweł Baraszkiewicz who became later a member of Posnania Poznań . At the Sydney Olympics however they finished in eighth place.

After Sydney, Gajownik concentrated on the four-man canoe. At the start of the 2003 season however he tested positive for nandrolone- same as Marcin Kobierski twice medalist in C-2 1000 m. Both denied the charge but were given a two-year ban which cost them a place at the 2004 Olympics.

Gajownik returned to competitive action in 2005. He was a member of the Posnania Poznań club until 2006. He was killed in a traffic collision on 13 November 2009 in Chrzanów.

References

1989: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1990: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1991: Soviet Union (Yuriy Gurin, Nicolae Juravschi, Viktor Reneysky, & Valeriy Veshko) * 1993: Hungary (Imre Pulai, György Kolonics, Tibor Takács, & Csaba Horváth) * 1994: Hungary (Imre Pulai, György Kolonics, Tibor Takács, & Csaba Horváth) * 1995: Romania (Marcel Glavan, Cosmin Pasca, Antonel Borsan, & Florin Popescu) * 1997: Romania (Marcel Glavan, Cosmin Pasca, Antonel Borsan, & Florin Popescu) * 1998: Hungary (Csaba Horváth, Béla Belicza, Csaba Hüttner, & László Szuszkó) * 1999: Russia (Ignat Kovalev, Konstantin Fomichev, Aleskey Volkinskiy, & Andrey Kabanov) * 2001: Hungary (György Zala, György Kozmann, Béla Belicza, & Gábor Ivan) * 2002: Poland (Andrzej Jezierski, Adam Ginter, Michał Gajownik, & Roman Rykiewicz) * 2003: Hungary (Csaba Hüttner, Márton Joób, Imre Pulai, & Ferenc Novák) * 2005: Poland (Wojciech Tyszyński, Michał Śliwiński, Andrzej Jezierski, & Michał Gajownik) * 2006: Germany (Robert Nuck, Stephan Breuing, Stefan Holtz, & Thomas Lück) * 2007: Romania (Josif Chirila, Andrei Cuculici, Silviu Simoncenco, & Loredan Popa) * 2009: Belarus (Dzianis Harazha, Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, and Aleksandr Vauchetskiy) * 2010: Belarus ( Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, Dzianis Harazha, and Aleksandr Vauchetskiy) * 2011: Belarus ( Dzmitry Rabchanka, Dzmitry Vaitsishkin, Dzianis Harazha, and Aleksandr Vauchetskiy)