Luca Homonnai 2015 Sports Junior of Year

Writer: Alyce Burnett - At just 16 years of age Luca Homonnai of Hungary is a seasoned professional having already achieved more than what most paddlers accomplish in their whole career.

In 2015 she became a double Junior World Champion (K1 200 & K1 500) and to cap it off she has taken home the prestigious Sports Junior of the Year award at the World Paddle Awards, ahead of a host of international stars including Serghey Tarnovschi and Jakub Grigar.

For some 2015 seems a lifetime ago but for Luca it still feels like yesterday. It was her breakthrough year, and when accepting her award all of those exciting memories and emotions came flooding back. “Last year I had good races but this year is a new year but I hope this year will be the same as last year,” she said with a smile from ear to ear.

Luca, who also won a silver medal in the K1 at the Youth Olympics in 2014, has taken the world by storm and is showing no signs of slowing down. Following her successes at the Junior World Championships in Portugal she paired up with the legendary Natasha Dusev-Janics in the K2 200 at the Senior World Championships where they picked up a silver medal. Whilst the gold medal was their ultimate aim, winning a medal of any colour on debut as a junior is an amazing achievement.

“The K2 with Natasha was very good in Milan and my K1 in Portugal was very good too so last year was very good for me,” she said.

Using her momentum from last year, Luca now has her sights firmly set on the Hungarian Olympic qualification regatta. “I will now try the olympic selection in Hungary and I hope for the best but in in Hungary we have a lot of good kayakers.”

If Luca’s 2015 successes are anything to go by, the world better watch out.

For all winners click here.