Friedhelm Wentzke ( German: Friedhelm Wentzke ; September 13, 1935 , Castrop-Rauksel ) - German kayaker , played for the national teams of Germany and the United Germany in the first half of the 1960s. Champion of the Summer Olympic Games in Rome, silver medalist of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, European champion, winner of many regattas of national and international importance.
| Friedhelm Wencke | |
|---|---|
| personal information | |
| Floor | |
| A country |  Germany |
| Specialization | kayak sprint |
| Club | Eintracht Duisburg |
| Date of Birth | September 13, 1935 (83 years old) |
| Place of Birth | Castrop-Rauxel , Germany |
| Growth | 179 cm |
| Weight | 82 kg |
Biography
Friedhelm Wencke was born on September 13, 1935 in the city of Castrop-Rauxel . He began to actively engage in rowing at the age of seventeen in the local sports section, underwent training in Dortmund for some time, later moved to Duisburg for permanent residence and joined the Eintracht sports club.
He achieved his first serious success at the adult international level in the 1960 season, when he joined the main national team of the German national rowing team and, thanks to a series of successful performances, was awarded the right to defend the country's honor at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome , where he represented the so-called United German Team , collected from athletes of Germany and East Germany. Together with rowers such as Dieter Krause , Paul Lange and Gunter Perleberg, won the 4 × 500 m loner relay race and thus won the Olympic gold medal.
Having become the Olympic champion, Wencke remained in the main team of the West German national team and continued to take part in major international regattas. So, in 1961 he performed at the European Championship in Poznan, Poland, overtook all his rivals in the relay program and received a golden dignity award. Being one of the leaders of the rowing team of Germany, he was safely selected as a member of the United German team to participate in the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo . This time he started in the standings of four-seater kayaks at a distance of 1000 meters together with partners Bernhard Schulze , Gunter Perleberg and Holger Zander - they easily qualified in the preliminary stage and from the first place went through the semi-final stage, but in the decisive race they finished second, losing to the Soviet crew Nikolay , Anatoly Grishin , Vyacheslav Ionov and Vladimir Morozov , and were forced to be content with silver Olympic awards.
The last time Friedhelm Wencke showed any significant result in the international arena in the 1965 season, when he visited the European Championships in Bucharest and brought back the silver dignity, won in the relay 4 × 500 m. Subsequently, he remained an active athlete until 1966, received medals in the classification of national championships, however, in major international tournaments no longer participated.
Literature
- Volker Kluge: Olympische Sommerspiele. Die Chronik II . Berlin 1998 ISBN 3-328-00740-7
- Karl Lennartz und Walter Teutenberg: Olympiateilnehmer in Westfalen. Biographien Athen 1896 bis München 1972 . Kassel 1993 ISBN 3-928562-58-4
Links
- Friedhelm Wencke - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
- Friedhelm Wencke - medals at major international competitions
- Lists of kayaking and canoeing champions and prize winners (1936-2007 )