33-year-old Vit Prindis won his first individual Canoe Slalom World Champion this year in Augsburg and the gold medal brought him also the award for the Best Czech paddler of the year 2022. Kayaker from Prague already had a silver medal from the 2017 World Championships and two European Champion titles in his pocket, but this August he reached the top of the World at the World Championships in the Eiskanal which is so far his biggest individual success. This was the fourth World Champion in the last 10 years for representative of Czech Republic thanks to Jiri Prskavec, Ondrej Tunka and now Vit Prindis.
“The Czech Canoe Union currently has very strong male and female competitors who are bringing medals from the Olympics, World or European Championships. It's a very nice end to the season for me and a really great award, which I really appreciate,” said Prindis, who also won the World Cup in Krakow this year and together with his teammates Jiri Prskavec and Ondrej Tunka won the title of European Champions in team event. “I would like to raise my performance even further in the next season. It's not like I think I'm World Champion now and I'm done. I still enjoy the journey, and even though I'm not the youngest, I still feel that I have the desire to move forward,” added Prindis.
Canoe Sprinter Martin Fuksa and Canoe Slalom paddler Jiri Prskavec were second and third in the standings of the best Czech paddler of the year.
The best team of the year was canoe sprint K2 crew Jakub Špicar – Daniel Havel, who won medal at the World Championships in Canada.
During the ceremony the former president of the Czech Canoe Union Jan Bohač symbolically passed the position to Stanislav Ježek, who took over the position in mid-June. “
“My new position brought me, among other things, a lot of workload, but at the same time very pleasant surprises in the form of congratulations on the achievements of our athletes. This year's season was again very successful for the Czechs colours, and we believe that it will be similar in the coming year, which will be dedicated to Olympic qualifications,” said Ježek.
The award for the best athlete in canoe marathon went to the hands of Jakub Brezina, the best in wildwater canoeing is Ondrej Rolenc, the best junior Michal Urban, the best in canoe touring Jiri Kronika and the award also went to the dragon boat crew that won medal at World Championships in Račice.
Awards
Individuals: 1. Vit Prindiš (canoe slalom K1), 2. Martin Fuksa (canoe sprint C1), 3. Jiri Prskavec (canoe slalom K1).
Teams: 1. Jakub Špicar, Daniel Havel (canoe sprint K2 500 m), 2. Tereza Fišerova, Martina Satkova, Gabriela Satkova (canoe slalom C1 teams), 3. Jiri Prskavec, Vit Prindiš, Ondrej Tunka (canoe slalom K1 teams).
Juniors: 1. Michal Urban (canoe slalom C1), 2. Štepan Venc (canoe slalom K1), 3. Lukaš Hrabek, Jakub Niebauer (canoe sprint K2).
Personality of the canoe marathon: Jakub Brezina
Personality of the wildwater canoeing: Ondrej Rolenc
Personality of the canoe touring: Jiri Kronika
Dragonboat crew: World Championships medallists in the MIX event
Source and photo: https://www.kanoe.cz/?view=article&id=9365:kanoistou-roku-2022-je-mistr-sveta-vit-prindis&catid=141:novinky
25.10.2022
