Friedhelm Wentzke

Friedhelm Wentzke (born September 13, 1935 in Castrop-Rauxel ) is a former German canoeist . He won Olympic gold in Rome in 1960 and silver in Tokyo in 1964.

Wentzke began his career in 1953 with the Paddlergilde Castrop-Rauxel , in 1956 he moved to FS 1898 Dortmund and later started for Eintracht Duisburg . The trained electric fitter and welder later worked as a swimming master.

At the 1960 Olympic Games on Lake Albano , a 4-by-500-meter relay was held once in a single kayak , which was replaced by the four-person kayak from 1964 . For this season, Friedhelm Wentzke and Paul Lange, two canoeists from the Federal Republic and Günther Perleberg and Dieter Krause, two canoeists from the GDR were registered. The relay won gold, making it the most successful all-German team.

For winning the gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, he was awarded the silver bay leaf on December 9, 1960.

In 1961, Wentzke was also European champion with the relay. From 1961 to 1966 he won ten German championship titles, three times in a single kayak, twice in a two-person kayak , three times in a four-person kayak and twice with the relay. At the 1964 Olympic Games , Wentzke competed in a four-person kayak. In the purely West German boat sat Holger Zander , Bernhard Schulze , Wentzke and Günther Perleberg, who did not return to the GDR after the 1963 World Cup. In the final of the Olympic Games, the boat from the Soviet Union could not be beaten, the German four came second just ahead of the Romanian boat.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .
• Karl Lennartz and Walter Teutenberg: Olympic participants in Westphalia. Biographies Athens 1896 to Munich 1972 . Kassel 1993 ISBN 3-928562-58-4

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sports report of the federal government of September 29, 1973 to the Bundestag - printed matter 7/1040 - page 61