Aliaksei Abalmasau

Aliaksei Abalmasau

Beijing K-4 1000 m team on a 2010 Belarusian stamp: Abalmasau (left), Piatrushenka, Litvinchuk and Makhneu
Personal information
Born	20 June 1980 (1980-06-20) (age 36) Barysaŭ, Belarus
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	83 kg (183 lb)
Sport
Sport	Canoe sprint
Club	Dynamo Barisov Dynamo Minsk
Medal record Representing  Belarus Olympic Games 2008 Beijing K-4 1000 m World Championships 2005 Zagreb K-4 500 m 2009 Dartmouth K-4 1000 m 2002 Seville K-4 500 m 2010 Poznań K-4 1000 m 2005 Zagreb K-4 200 m 2006 Szeged K-4 1000 m

Aliaksei Abalmasau (or Aleksey Abalmasov, Belarusian: Аляксей Абалмасаў, born 20 June 1980) is a Belarusian sprint canoer who has competed since 1998. Competing in two Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal in the K-4 1000 m event at Beijing in 2008.

As a junior, he had won a K-4 500 m bronze medal at the 1998 Junior World Championships in Nyköping, Sweden but he first came to prominence in 2000 when he won three gold medals at the European under-23 championships at Boulogne, France (K-2 1000 m with Vadzim Makhneu, K-4 500 m, K-4 1000 m). They retained both K4 under-23 titles in 2002.

The under-23 K-4 gold medalists were gradually promoted to the Belarus senior boat. Abalmasau's first senior appearance was at the 2000 European championships. They rapidly challenged the world's elite, winning two bronze medals at the European championships in Milan in 2001 and the world championship silver medal in Seville in 2002. In 2003, however, excellent early-season results were not repeated at the world championships in Gainesville, USA as they finished out of the medals.

In 2004, with Dziamyan Turchyn now on board in place of Aliaksei Skurkouski they won the senior European K-2 500 m silver medal in Poznań, Poland. In the K-4 1000 m Olympic final in Athens, they finished sixth.