Yuriy Cheban

Yuriy Cheban ( _uk. Юрій Чебан) (born 5 July 1986) is an athlete from Ukraine. He competes in flatwater canoeing. He was bornin Mykolaiv.

In 2003, despite being a year younger than many of his rivals, he was a world junior silver medallist at Komatsu, Japan in the Canadian canoe C1 1000m and also finished fourth over 500m. Having won the 2004 European Junior Championships at both 500m and 1000m in Poznań, Poland, Cheban was selected to represent Ukraine in both C1 events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Competing against much more experienced canoers, he placed sixth in his initial heat of the 500 metre with a time of 2:00.238, qualifying for the semifinals. In the semifinal, he again placed sixth with a time of 1:53.385, and did not advance to the finals.

In the 1000 metre, Cheban finished sixth in his heat with a time of 4:00.637. He was disqualified in the semifinal.

In 2005, Cheban and partner Petro Kruh won the European under-23 C-2 1000m title in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. At the senior World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia they were the youngest of the C-2 1000m finalists, placing ninth.

In 2006 Cheban returned to the individual C1 event and it proved to be his most successful season yet. In July he took the C-1 500m bronze medal at the 2006 European Championships in Račice, Czech Republic - his first senior medal. The following month he went one better, winning the silver medal at the World Championships in Szeged.

He won a bronze medal in the C1 500m event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He is a member of the Yuzhne club.

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