Ott Tänak was ready to interrupt his rally career for his wife | News

The Duck Rally (Pardiralli) charity event for children with cancer will take place for the 11th time on June 7. This time, 20,000 ducks will take part and anyone who wants to take part can buy their duck on the Pardiralli website. The aim of the rubber duck swimming competition is to support the fight of children with cancer and their families and to raise awareness of the disease.

“The goal is to have winners and give them the support they need to win. I think such a fun event definitely helps,” says Ott Tänak, this year’s patron of the Duck Rally.

“It’s hard to say why I want to be involved. We know that there will always be more people in need than there are helpers. We have tried to do our part every year, and this is where you have to give your all. The Duck Rally team has been persistently fulfilling its mission for so long. It gets stronger every year and the number of winners is growing.”

Tänak recalled that he had a rubber duck in his car at the beginning of his career. “It was a symbol or a companion that I had in the car. I think it might have been in 2008 when I started driving for an Estonian team and the mechanics attached a rubber duck to my handbrake. The duck accompanied me to all Estonian and World Championship races for six or seven years. At first it seemed funny, but after a while the duck’s presence became a kind of obligation,” said the rally driver.

When asked if he still takes the duck to rallies, Tänak said that when he went swimming with his car in Mexico in 2015, the duck liked it and decided to stay.

Ott Tänak’s wife Janika was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer two years ago. Janika’s battle is now under control.

“It’s hard to forget something like that. It never happens. In our case, there were several phases. The first was when we discovered a strange lump. Waiting and not knowing is the hardest part of that first phase. You have no experience and you don’t know what will happen. Next, you have to find the right doctors and trust that you will find a doctor who will always have time for you. Everything takes time. We couldn’t tell right away if it was benign or malignant. Finally, the biopsy was done and Janika had surgery. That was the hardest moment because although they had hoped it would be good news, it turned out to be very bad news instead,” Tänak recalls.

“I had just returned from a competition in Croatia and had to travel straight to Portugal, but I still had time to call my team and tell them that I would soon be landing in Frankfurt and needed a flight home from there. They organized everything and were a great support at the time.”

Tänak was ready to interrupt his rally career for his wife. “It wasn’t even a question of necessity. I was able to be at home in the difficult moments at first. I was there and looked after the children when Janika went through her toughest weeks of chemotherapy. Life at home worked, while then she started having heart problems. We discovered a thrombus in her heart. At that moment, everything seemed too much. I think I was rallying in Finland and I remember thinking I would just quit and go home, I couldn’t stay away. But she wanted me to keep competing.”

“I think that someone who is sick needs to see that life is going on around them and that things are going in the right direction. When you start to feel sick, you start to think that you are sick. You must not feel sick even if you are. Family has always been a priority for me. Making sure that everything is OK at home is the most important thing.”

The World Rally Championship (WRC) season is in full swing. The next event is scheduled for next weekend, the Rally Italy Sardinia. Tänak is currently in third place in the overall standings. What are his expectations as he travels to Sardinia?

“We started the year relatively weakly, but were able to work our way up. We definitely don’t want to hold on to third place, our goal is more. The season is long and nothing has been decided yet,” said the 2019 world champion.

“I don’t plan to finish second in the overall standings this season. Let’s just say the goal is to become world champion. If another competitor wins the championship, it would be a certain humiliation,” Tänak said with a laugh.

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