Wolfgang Gunkel (rower)

In the front boat: Wolfgang Gunkel (left) and Jörg Lucke in 1976 with helmsman Uwe Porombka

Wolfgang Gunkel (born January 15, 1948 in Berlin ; † May 20, 2020 ) was a rower from the GDR. In 1972 Gunkel became Olympic champion in two with helmsman .

Gunkel began as a swimming athlete at BSG Motor Treptow and then switched to the SG Grünau as a rower . In 1968 he was GDR champion together with Helmut Wollmann and helmsman Klaus-Dieter Neubert and then fourth at the Olympic Games in Mexico. On the Olympic regatta course in Xochimilco , the boat was 0.15 seconds behind the third-placed Danish crew.

In 1970 Jörg Lucke moved to Gunkel and Neubert on the boat. In 1971 this new two-man European champion and at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich the boat won with over two seconds ahead of the Czechoslovak boat. In 1974 the boat became vice world champion and in 1975 Gunkel and Lucke and their new helmsman Bernd Fritsch became world champions. In the Olympic qualification in 1976, the world champions failed because of the later Olympic champions Harald Jahresling and Friedrich-Wilhelm Ulrich with their helmsman Georg Spohr . Gunkel traveled to Montreal as a substitute for the Olympic Games . The following year, Wolfgang Gunkel became world champion as the striker of the GDR eight. Gunkel then ended his career.

Gunkel was a trained surgical mechanic, he later worked as a mechanic at the Institute for Research and Development of Sports Equipment in Berlin. He had been married to rower Renate Boesler since the early 1970s ; she is the aunt of Petra Boesler and Martina Boesler .

Awards (selection)

• 1971: Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
• 1972: Patriotic Order of Merit in silver

literature

• Volker Kluge : The great lexicon of GDR athletes. The 1000 most successful and popular athletes from the GDR, their successes and biographies. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89602-348-9 .
• Volker Kluge: Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle III. Mexico City 1968 - Los Angeles 1984. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-328-00741-5 .

Web links

• Wolfgang Gunkel in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary for Wolfgang Gunkel. In: www.rudern.de. German Rowing Association , May 29, 2020, accessed on May 29, 2020 .