2017 ICF Slalom World Championships (Pau, France) – DAY4, MEN K1 FINALS REPORT

Tunka celebrates birthday by becoming World Champion

Ondrej Tunka is the first to admit; all it takes is one good day to turn what was otherwise a mostly unforgettable season into your very best ever. And if that day also happens to be your birthday, than that really is a momentous time in your life.

It took less than a day, actually. About 90 seconds to be exact. That’s all it took the Czech to turn his 2017 from a nothing-out-of-the-ordinary stock-standard paddling year to best-ever-top-of-the-world status.

On the day he was already celebrating his 27th birthday.

Ondrej Tunka on Friday became the third Czech in four years to claim the World K1 canoe slalom title, edging out his close friend and teammate Vit Prindis by a miniscule 0.02 seconds.

Ondrej Tunka the 2017 Slalom World Champion ©ICF/ Balit Vekassy/ Kayaksession.com

The winning margin was only part of the drama. When Slovenia’s Peter Kauzer, the Rio Olympic silver medallist, crossed the finish line in a sizzling 90.13 Tunka and Prindis celebrated vigorously, ecstatic with what they believed were silver and bronze.

But then the real drama unfolded. As Kauzer celebrated on the water, suddenly his jubilation turned to dismay. Judges had deemed the three-time Olympian had touched gate 17, the two-second penalty enough to see the 34-year-old drop from first to third, and Tunka climb from silver to gold.

Minutes after the result was confirmed, Tunka still couldn’t believe it. An hour later friends reported he was still walking around in a daze.

“I think this was my first good run in a final, I’m very happy for it,” he said.

“But I still don’t know what is happening now.”

At the last World Championships, in 2015, Tunka had made the final, finishing ninth. But his start to the 2017 World Championships had been far from spectacular.

He finished 34th in the first run on Wednesday. At his second attempt, he was seventh – still far from convincing, but enough to get into Friday’s semi.

Watch the K1 Men Finals Video Replay