The1987 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held inDuisburg,West Germany for the second time. TheWest German city hosted thechampionships previously in1979.
The men's competition consisted of sixCanadian (single paddle, open boat) and ninekayak events. Three events were held for the women, all in kayak.
This was the 21st championships in canoe sprint.
| Event | Gold | Time | Silver | Time | Bronze | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-1 500 m |  Olaf Heukrodt (GDR) |  Petr Procházka (TCH) |  Attila Szabó (HUN) | |||
| C-1 1000 m | Olaf Heukrodt (GDR) |  Martin Marinov (BUL) |  Ivan Klementiev (URS) | |||
| C-1 10000 m |  Ivan Šabjan (YUG) | Zsolt Bohács (HUN) | Takhir Kamaletdinov (URS) | |||
| C-2 500 m |  PolandMarek Łbik Marek Dopierała | Soviet Union Yuriy Gurin Valeriy Veshko | Czechoslovakia Petr Procházka Alon Lochinsky | |||
| C-2 1000 m | Soviet Union Yuriy Gurin Valeriy Veshko | Poland Marek Łbik Marek Dopierała | East Germany Ulrich Papke Ingo Spelly | |||
| C-2 10000 m |  DenmarkArne Nielsson Christian Frederiksen | Hungary Róbert Rideg Pál Pétervári |  Great BritainAndrew Train Stephen Train |
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Germany (GDR) | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 | Hungary (HUN) | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| 3 | Soviet Union (URS) | 2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| 4 |  New Zealand (NZL) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 5 |  United States (USA) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Poland (POL) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 7 | Denmark (DEN) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
 France (FRA) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 9 |  Norway (NOR) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 10 | Yugoslavia (YUG) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 12 |  Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 13 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 14 |  Netherlands (NED) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 |  West Germany (FRG) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 16 | Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (16 entries) | 18 | 18 | 18 | 54 | |
| Editions | _pictogram.svg) | |
|---|---|---|
| Medalists | ||
