Wolfgang Gunkel rowed with TSC Berlin in the coxed pairs and won the East German title in 1968. They won a silver medal two years later. At the 1968 Mexico Games Gunkel finished an unfortunate fourth, but in München four years later, he won the gold medal with Jörg Lucke – who then replaced Helmut Wollmann – and Klaus-Dieter Neubert. They also won the East German title in 1971, 1973-74. In 1971 they won the European title, and two years later collected a silver medal. In 1974, they won another silver medal, this time at the World Championships, and in 1975 Gunkel and Lucke won the East German and World titles, with non-Olympian cox Bernd Fritsch. Gunkel travelled to the Montréal Olympics in 1976 as a substitute, and the following year won his last international title, with the eights at the World Championships in Amsterdam.
Gunkel later trained as a surgical technician, and worked with the Institut für Forschung und Entwicklung von Sportgeräten (FES) – Institute for Research and Development of Sports Equipment. He married non-Olympian Renate Boesler, aunt of sisters Martina and Petra Boesler.
East Germany