Yang Wenjun
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's canoe sprint | ||
| Olympic Games | ||
| Gold | 2004 Athens | C-2 500 m |
| Gold | 2008 Beijing | C-2 500 m |
| World Championships | ||
| Bronze | 2006 Szeged | C-1 500 m |
| Bronze | 2007 Duisburg | C-1 500 m |
Yang Wenjun (simplified Chinese: 杨文军; traditional Chinese: 楊文軍; pinyin: Yáng Wénjūn, born December 25, 1983 in Yichun, Jiangxi) is a Chinese sprint canoer who has competed since the early 2000s. Participating in two Summer Olympics, he won two C-2 500 m gold medals Meng Guanliang, earning them in 2004 and 2008.
Yang's first major international success came at the 2002 Asian Games where, aged only 18, he won two gold C-2 medals with Wang Bing. At the 2003 world championships in Gainesville, USA he was the youngest of the individual C-1 1000m finalists, finishing a very creditable seventh overall.
At the start of the 2004 season he formed a new C-2 partnership with the more experienced Meng, working under Canadian coach Marek Ploch. On their first international appearance together in Komatsu, Japan, they shocked observers by posting a 500 m time of 1:40.27. Then, in June, they won the prestigious Duisburg World Cup.
At the Olympic Games in Athens, they were drawn in the toughest heat alongside all the main medal contenders. They won the heat in a time of 1:38.916, almost a full second ahead of Cubans Rojas and Ledys Balceiro. The final was much closer with less than a second separating the first eight contenders but Meng and Yang again came out on top, beating the Cuban pair to win the gold medal.
After the Olympics, Yang returned to the C-1. At the 2005 World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia he raced over all three distances, despite the new compressed schedule, and finished 6th (500 m), 7th (1000 m) and 10th (200 m).
At the 2006 World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, Yang concentrated on the shorter distance events. He won the C-1 500 m bronze medal, China's first-ever men's world championship medal, and finished fifth in the C-1 200 m. Yang won another bronze in the C-1 500 m event at the following world championships in Duisburg.
Meng and Yang defended their Olympic title four years later despite their boat capsizing at the finish line after their win.
Yang is 177 cm (5'10") tall and weighs 77 kg (169 lbs).
References
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 1: flatwater (now sprint): 1936-2007.
- ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936-2007.
- Sports-reference.com profile
| |||||