(2017 ☆ ARCHIVED) Adam Varga - Hungary

ADAM VARGA (Hungary) - 2017 Nominee for Junior of the Year Award

Born: 1999, Sport: Canoe Sprint and Canoe Marathon, Represents: Hungary
2017: Gold K1 500m & SIlver K1 1000m Junior World Sprint Championships (Romania), Gold K1 and K2 Junior World Marathon Championships (South Africa)
2016: Gold K1 100m & SIlver K4 1000m Junior World Sprint Championships (Belarus)

Adam Varga took the world by storm this year, taking home four World Championship medals across two different disciplines.

Starting his season with a strong showing at the European junior championships where he won a silver medal in the K1 1000, Adam has gone from strength to strength throughout the season which culminated in a dominant victory at the World Marathon Championships.

With the K1 1000m being his first final of the weekend at the 2017 Junior Sprint World Championships in Romania, Adam was looking to assert his control early in the race. After going through the 250m in first place, he battled it out with Germany’s Jacob Schoff, in one of the strongest headwinds they would have ever raced in. In the closing stages Schoff’s power proved too much, with Varga placing second in what is likely to be one of the toughest races of his career thus far.

Following this, in much calmer conditions, he took the line honours in the K1 500m, just 0.03s ahead of Serbia’s Bojan Zdelar. With Varga favouring the longer distances, he went through the 250m in fourth position before kicking in the final stretch of the 500m to come over the top of an extremely tough field.

A couple of months later and Adam was back at it, this time at the 2017 World Marathon Championships in South Africa. In what is being touted as one of the most dominant displays of the weekend, Adam defended his junior world title in emphatic style by paddling away from his rivals to finish almost three minutes in front. He then teamed up with Levente Vékássy to win the junior K2 title.

As a result of these amazing successes, Adam Varga has been nominated for the 2017 Sports Junior of the year award, becoming the first male sprint nominee for the award. 

This is a 2017 archived nominee. Voting has closed.