Romanian rower Catalin Chirila told AGERPRES that the gold medal captured on Sunday in the men's C1 1,000m event at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Halifax emboldens him for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
Through his double feat of securing gold and silver in the 1,000 and 500m canoe sprint events at Halifax, Chirila reconnected with the tradition of the legendary Romanian canoe champions from Simion Ismailciuc and Ivan Patzachin to Aurel Macarencu, and is now setting his sights on the 2024 Olympics.
After an unbelievable wait of 36 years, Chirila - from the Steaua Sports Club - rebuilt the bridge to a brilliant past of singles canoe sprint victories, the last of which was the world title won by Aurel Macarencu in 1986.
After the retirement of his C2 partner Victor Mihalachi following the fifth place secured at the Tokyo Olympics in the 1,000m event, Chirila has trained exclusively for the individual race, and it didn't take him long to join the club of the 1,000m great champions, such as Tokyo Olympic champion and multiple world champion Isaquias Santos of Brazil, or Czech Martin Fuksa who has no less than five world silver medals on this distance under his belt, as well as three European titles.
"When I left for Canada, my only intention was to put up a show. I knew that I was new among them, I may have caught the attention of some of my opponents, I may have captured their interest, others may have underestimated me, and all I wanted was to put up a show. I knew that now, at the beginning was my chance to put on a brilliant performance, but in all honesty I didn't expect gold. I wanted medals, because at the World Cup I competed against the same athletes and I saw that it was possible. No one is invincible after all and it's perfectly possible to grab the most brilliant medal, as you've seen. I think I will realize exactly what I did only tomorrow. But the feeling, the first feeling when I got off the boat, was formidable. The mere thought that I'm a world champion gives me very high hopes for the Paris Olympics,'' Catalin Chirila declared for AGERPRES.
Just ten days after the World Championships, Catalin Chirila will embark on another important competition, the European Championships in Munich (August 18-21), where he attempts to give again a superlative performance: "I want a result at least as fabulous as in Halifax, with no less than two medals."