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 c-1 1000 m and also finished fourth in the c-1 500 m event. having won the 2004 european junior championships at both the c-1 500 m and c-1 1000 m in poznań, poland, cheban was selected to represent ukraine in both c-1 events at the 2004 summer olympics.