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From here you will be able to find out more about the incredibly diverse attractions of
canoeing and kayaking in South Africa, from the world class sprinting venues, slalom
and wild water disciplines, to the hugely popular long distance river racing season that
forms the backbone of the sport.
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For all the latest national and regional news please go to the
CSA Newsletters button
on
the menu on your left.
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Hartley Grabs Gold!
Szeged – Bridgitte Hartley raced to arguably the biggest win of her career on Sunday as she won gold in the showcase K1 500m Final at the Szeged World Cup in Hungary. The 500m is the Olympic distance women’s event, meaning the win has positioned Hartley perfectly to challenge for a medal in the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The A-Final featured the top women sprint kayakers in the world and a host of Olympic medal winners. At the halfway mark, Beijing bronze medalist Katrin Wagner-Augustin was a nose ahead of the South African, but Hartley pushed on with her powerful kick to pip the German star by half a second on the finish line, netting her second World Cup gold medal. Beijing silver medalist Josefa Idem secured the bronze.
Go to the Sprint page for more!
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SASCOC OPEX Press Release
Shaun Rubenstein and Bridgitte Hartley are on the list for London 2012
Read More
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R24 Million LOTTO Grant
Yes you are reading it correctly. We have been waiting with baited breath to see whether the proposal sent in September last year was going to be successful. And we have been granted a huge portion of what we asked for! The R24 million will be spread over 3 years and is to focus on High performance and development programs.
So how come we were granted this Lottery?
· The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF) after receiving recommendations from SASCOC, have based their allocation on sporting disciplines who are potential medal winners – and the performance and results of our paddlers last year proved that we are close to the button.
· A professional submission and constant lobbying from our General Manager, Graham Bird. Graham has been relentless in sending SASCOC the achievements of all our paddlers, both nationally and internationally, he co-ordinated and submitted three years worth of audited accounts and put together an extremely professional proposal for our bid.
· SASCOC has witnessed the wonderful development in canoeing in the past few years through the media.
· The Corporate Governance and Controls that exist within CSA, allowing NLDTF to put their faith in Canoeing South Africa as a well managed organisation, knowing that their money is well invested.
This NLDTF grant comes with strict allocation guidelines and the CSA Board will be meeting shortly to go through all of the necessary agreements and allocations to ensure that SASCOC and CSA objectives are achieved!
There you have it – Canoeing is clearly recognized as one of the top 6 Olympic sports in this country.
· Thank you to all the paddlers who have achieved so well in the International scene – making people sit up and take note of your achievements
· Thank you to all our development paddlers who have proved that canoeing is completely colour blind
· Thank you to our coaches and dedicated administrators for the role that they have played
· A special thank you to Graham for his tireless determination to get this grant.
As you all may have seen, CSA is advertising for a High Performance coordinator who will play a vital role in carrying out the High Performance plans. Development is also an integral part of the grant and it will be so exciting to finally be able to contribute to the successful development programs around the country and assist in setting up further projects!
Merrill King - CSA President
UMKO 2009
Hank MCgregor and Grant van der Walt take it from Ant Stott and Deon Bruss
Full story and results at www.umko.co.za
Results can also be found HERE
DRAK CHALLENGE
21st and 22 Feb 2008
For Full info go to www.drak.co.za
Final Results can be found HERE
STIHL NON-STOP DUSI 2009
Piers Cruikshanks and Michael Mbanjwa win in K2
Mark Mulder takes K1 Title
Full story, results and Pics at www.stihlnonstopdusi.co.za
HANSA POWERADE DUSI 2009
Ant Stott wins by huge margin.
Final Results can be found HERE with the full details at www.dusi.org.za
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South African Tour to the Australian Youth Olympics Festival
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http://www.canoe.com.au/site/canoeing/ac/downloads/2009/AYOF/Flatwater Bulletin 1 updated.pdf
The team of young men due to represent South Africa at the 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival (www.olympics.com.au) next week has settled in well for their final training camp at www.sunshinecoastcanoe.org.au , Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast, 90km north of Brisbane in Queensland, since arriving via Perth on the evening of Friday 2 January 2009.
The Australian Institute of Sport's National TID and Development Coach, Peter Petho, has been a fantastic host and has provided kayaks, a speedboat, keys to the clubhouse, access to the AIS gym at Kawana Waters and a full briefing of the training and coaching methods in place by ausport.gov.au and www.canoe.com.au
Peter Petho began his coaching career in Hungary and moved to Australia when our local coach, Attila Adrovics, was 16 years old.
The main purpose of the AYOF is to prepare potential Olympic athletes across a range of Olympic disciplines. South Africa will be represented in Flatwater Kayak, Triathlon and Cycling.
Australia will field 660 U/19 athletes and officials, China 273, New Zealand 229, Great Britain 190 and Japan 117, as part of ongoing preparations for the 2012 London Olympics.
The is the fifth AYOF festival and it will be held from January 14-18, with 25 nations being hosted at the Olympic village at Homebush in Sydney's west.
According to AOC chief John Coates, 76 former AYOF athletes graduated to represent Australia at last year's Beijing Games, 23 medalled.
Core sports in this year's event include athletics, swimming, diving, gymnastics, cycling, canoe/kayak, rowing and shooting, with triathlon and beach volleyball making their first return to the program since 2001.
Held every two years, the AYOF made its debut in Sydney in 2001. Since its inception, the games have more than doubled in events and cost.
In 2001, the AOC spent $2.7 million on the event, hosting 10 games and 23 nations.
This year, the cost is $4.6 million (R 33 000 000.00), with 17 events and 1,500 competitors.
The five-day-long games will kick off with an opening ceremony at the Sydney Entertainment centre while the games utilise Sydney's 2000 Olympic venues.
As well as competing, athletes will sit in on drug education lectures and be given drug tests, Coates said.
"We try and duplicate as much as possible what happened in Olympic Games," he said.
"There's an opening ceremony, they live in Olympic villages, we have medal ceremonies.
"We have drug testing and for most of these athletes it will be the first time they will be tested.
"They have to learn that it's part of sport these days."
Coates said Australia expected to send 100 athletes to the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in 2010.
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All arrangements on track for the tour to AYOF 2009 to be held in Sydney from the 14 to 18 January
2008. The updated team list is as follows:
– comprehensive information on kayak discipline at AYOF 09 – NB talk by Ken Wallace.
Martin van den Bergh
Joshua Wadge
Frans Smit
Greg Martin
Matthew Shaw
Billy Pullen
- main Australian Olympic website for general information - Kawana Waters training camp accommodation - general information - greater Kawana Waters region
http://www.maroochyriverbungalows.com.au
http://www.mooloolabatourism.com.au
A Press Release on the recent ICF Congress in Italy is available to be downloaded from HERE
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Grand Prix 2008 Final Standings HERE
Please find LOWVELD CROC, VAAL MARATHON and BELL ITHALA and House of Paint 50 MILER
Results on the Results Button
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House of Paint 50 Miler
Despite the necessity for last minute course changes the House of Paint 50 Miler 2008 will go down in the history books as "one of the best". Good water, coolish weather and smooth organisation on the days all contributed to a great event.
Ant Stott and Shaun Rubenstein raced together at the front for a lot of the first day from Mission Rapid to just below Marianne Foley Causeway. Stott finally broke clear to win the day by just short of two minutes. Michael Arthur and Junior, Andrew Birkett both took advantage of the paddling day with just one shortish portage at Second Saddle to keep clear of Michael Mbanjwa for third and forth places. However, on Day 2 while Stott raced away on his own to a seven minute victory, Mbanjwa used the long Ngumeni Hill portage to pull back into third place which he held all the way to the finish at the Msinsi Resort on Inanda Dam. Arthur and Birkett finished forth and fifth, just one second apart after an exciting sprint for the line. Nhlanhla Cele, one of Martin Dreyers "Change a Life" project boys from the Umgeni valley was second in he boys race three minutes clear of third placed, Lance Kime.
Junior, Robyn Kime created something of an upset by beating race favorite, Abby Miedema to the overnight stop, but Miedema reversed the standings on Sunday taking the women's race overall by seven minutes. U21 Abie Adie was third on both days. A face to watch here is Lauren Symons back in he women's mix after a couple of season's break. Battling with a damaged stearing system on Day 1, she finished Day 2 just 18 seconds behind Adie. Rising U16 star from Epworth, Lauren Canham, was second in the Girls race as well as the winner of the Lana Borginon trophy for the first female K1 novice in the race. Another Epworth paddler, Jenna Starr took third place.
Loveday Zondi, 8th at the overnight stop. suffered another disasterous shoulder dislocation in the Gum Tree, Tombi, Hippo Rocks Hot Mile on Sunday and sadly looks sidelined again for several months. Martin Dreyer's men seven places in the top 50 with 10th Nkosi Cele, 13th Zonele Nzuza, 17th Tom Ngcobo, 20th Nhlanhla Cele, 21st Lucas Mthalane, 35th Kwanda Mhlophe , and 37th Richard Cele. Huge progress towards his target of 10 in the top 50 for Hansa Powerade Dusi in January.
The first K2 over the line in this predominantly K1 event, was the winning Mixed Double of Kevin and Wendy White. Both past winners of the race and the Dusi, this was the couple's last race in RSA before they begin a new life in Australia in January. "We will be back for some more Dusi's, and try and bring some Aussies with us" promised White.
The cool weather and a 12cumec water release from Henley Dam courtesy of Umgeni Water meant ideal conditions for the almost 600 paddlers entered for the race.This and smooth organisation on the two race days by hosts Umzinyathi Canoe Club and their title sponsors, House of Pint, left most paddlers full of praize for the new format.
Results
K1 Men
1. Ant Stott NAT 4:02:57, 2. Shaun Rubenstein ERK 4:09:56, 3. Michael Mbanjwa ERK 4:13:28, 4. Michael Arthur NAT 4:14:59, 5 Andrew Birkett(U18) MAR 4:15:00, 6.Mike Harris(SV) VIC 4:19:27, 7. Doug Bird MMS 4:19:28, 8. Nick Stubbs(U21) MMS 4:26:19, 9. Deon Bruss UMV 4:26:20, 10. Nkosi Cele(U21) LEM 4:26:23.
K1 Women
1. Abbey Miedema PEN 4:50:23, 2. Robyn Kime(U18) UKN 4:57:20, 3. Abie Adie(U21) NAT 5:02:55, 4. Hillary Pitchford NAT 5:16:19, 5. Kate March UMF 5:21:56.
K1 Boys
1. Andrew Birkett MAR 4:15:00, 2. Nhlanhla Cele LEM 4:33:17, 3. Lance Kime NAT 4:36:12.
K1 Girls
1. Robyn Kime UKN 4:57:20, 2. Lauren Canham(U16) EPW 5:49:56, 3. Jenna Starr(U16) EPW 6:02:55.
1st U16 Boy Gavin Shuter DAB 4:51:54
1st SV Woman, Mandy Austen-Smith NAT 5:52:54.
1st V Martin Dreyer NAT 4:58:23, woman, Fiona MacCrimmon NAT 7:43:37
1st SM Eric Hildebrandt KIN 4:42:45
1st M Mark Lynn NAT 5:43:49
1st SGM Phillip van Niekerk5:05:34
1st GM Graeme Pope-Ellis KIN 5:00:52
1st GGM Hugh Raw NAT 7:37:02
1st K2 and MD Kevin and Wendy White(V) NAT 4:51:49
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Tyn Nad Vltavou, Czech Republic – Ant Stott and Cam Schoeman ended the South African challenge at the world marathon championships with a stunning gold medal in the men’s K2 competition, just a day after Stott had won a bronze medal in the men’s K1 race.
The duo fought off spirited challenges from crews from Spain and Hungary to win the end-sprint at the end of a riveting and highly competitive contest. Stott and Schoeman were dominant throughout the fiercely competitive men’s K2 race, raced on another very cold day.
Their skill running with the boat, and their speed off-the-mark allowed them to dictate tactics going into and coming out of the portages, and then conserve energy by riding the wave of the other boats on the front bunch.
There were seven boats together at the front after three laps, with the South Africans and the Hungarian duo Attila Jambor and Mate Petrovics controlling tactics. By the end of the fourth portage the front group had been whittled down to four, with the Hungarians surprising casualties of the dog-eat-dog racing.
However the Hungarians fought back gallantly and coming out of the final portage the race for the world title was reduced to four crews – South Africa, Hungary, Spain and the Czech Republic.
Stott and Schoeman worked hard for a slight advantage coming into the final sprint to the line to hold off the the Spaniards Guerrero and Alonso and the Hungarian crew Jambor and Petrovics.
The crew of Graeme Solomon and Lance King were not far behind the front bunch, in a tight group contesting tenth place, finishing up thirteenth.
It is the first time that a South African crew has won a K2 world championships. In 2003 Hank McGregor won the K1 world title in Spain, while in Australia the women's crew of Alexa Lombard and Donia Kamstra won the silver medal in the K2 race. Grant Van Der Walt won the junior K1 title last year.
In the junior races the talented crew of Ben Biggs and Stuart Waterworth were well in contention racing in the front bunch, before Waterworth started battling to breathe in the very cold racing conditions. They fell off the front bunch and eventually had to withdraw from the race on the third lap to seek medical help.
After some time receiving oxygen from the on-site medical personnel, a disappointed Waterworth was discharged. The other South African crew in the race Clinton Cook and his partner Stu McLaren finished in ninth place.
In the girls race the Amanzimtoti pairing of Lauren Felgate and Jenna Ward spent most of their race in the fourth bunch and went on to secure fifteenth place.
Injury led to the withdrawal of the South African C2 crew of Calvin Mokoto and Radoslaw Olszewski. Their race ended on the third lap with Olszewski battling with a recurrent leg injury .
The South African team jets home this week, having securing seven medals in the Masters Cup event that precedes the senior and junior world championships, and the two medals in the K1 races.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
WORLD MARATHON CHAMPIONSHIPS
MENS K2 30,1km
1.Ant Stott/Cam Schoeman RSA 2:02:14
2.Jorge Alonso/Santiago Guererro ESP 2:02.15
3. Attila Jambor/Petrovics HUN 2:02.15
4. Thomas Horak/Petr Skala CZE 2:02.15
5.Marcio Pinto/Pedro Gomes POR 2:03.05
13.Graeme Solomon/Lance King RSA 2:07.57
JUNIOR GIRLS K2 21,5km
1.Susanna Cicali/Roberta Fiorini ITA 1:38.25
2.Martina Vichova/Monika Machova CZE 1:38.46
3.Alexandra Georgopoulous/Ramona Farkasdi HUN 1:40.37
15.Lauren Felgate/Jenna Ward RSA 1:49.11
JUNIOR BOYS K2 21,5km
1.Ed Rutherford/Thomas Hide GBR 1:27.48
2.Toon Broekx/Maarten Vervliet BEL 1:28.19
3.Peter Holicza/Gabor Mathe HUN 1:28.33
9.Clinton Cook/Stuart McLaren RSA 1:32.41
MENS C2 25,8km
1.Edvin Csabai/Attila Gyore HUN 1:53.53
2.Ramon Ferro/Oscar Grana ESP 1:54.32
3.Angel Christian Rivademer/David Mascato ESP 1:55.49
WOMENS K2 25,8km
1.Anne Lolk/Henriette Hansen DEN 1:53.42
2.Renata Csay/Berenike Faldum HUN 1:53.43
3.Judit Kollar/Follath Vivien HUN 1:57.58
7.Lindi-May Harmsen/Abi Adie RSA 2:02.46
With all the major players entered and the Dusi and Umgeni rivers already flowing well ahead of the release from Henley Dam, everything looks set for an excellent running of Umzinyathi Canoe Club's, House of Paint 50 Miler this weekend. On the start line at 07h00 on Saturday at Mission Rapid will be the current first 5 Hansa Powerade Dusi seeds Ant Stott, Michael Mbanjwa, Len Jenkin, Andrew Birkett(junior) and Shaun Griffin. Along with a glut of other top contenders including Nick Stubbs, Shaun Rubenstein, Cam Schoeman, Jason Graham, Loveday Zondi, Lucas Mthalane, Shane Price, Nkosi Cele and many others, setting the scene for some very close racing. In the women's category there are just eight seeded boats inside the 130% cut off on the national ladder. Here Abby Miedema looks like the top seed with Abie Adie, Robyn Kime, and Kirsty van der Merwe all ready to cause an upset.
All eyes will also be on Martin Dreyer's Men from the Change a Life project at Nagle Dam where Martin is preparing paddlers from the Umzindusi/ Umgeni valley for the 2009 Hansa Powerade Dusi. He intends to have ten finish in the top fifty in the big race in January and this weekend should give a good indicator of progress. Boats to watch are Lucas Mthalane, Nkosiyayise Cele, Zonele Nzuza, Nhlanhla Cele, Tom Ngcobo and Mkhonzeni Gumede.
While Robyn Kime is expected to take the Girls race with reasonable ease, two other boats to watch will be Tamika Haw and Lauren Canham, both of whom have been making significant progress up the women's ladder in recent months. Both are products of KZN's top developer of strong female paddlers, Epworth school in Pietermaritzburg.
On Day 1 the course follows the same route as the past few years down the Umsindusi through the confluence with the Umgeni to finish a short distance upstream from last year in the pool below the Marianni Foley causeway. As usual, in what is touted as a paddlers race, the Dusi portages of Finger Neck, Cabbage Tree, First Saddle and the Confluence Portage are all out of bounds. This forces the paddlers through some areas shunned by the feint hearted on the Dusi, such as Bell rapid, Washing Machine, Tree Stump and Ibis Point. Washing Machine rapid is the Hot-spot target for the leaders on Day 1. Dat 2 on Sunday begins again at 07h00 in the pool below Marianni Foley and is followed shortly by the very paddler unfriendly three kilometre Umgmeni Hill Portage, the only real chance in the race for the Dusi runner specialists to gain an advantage over their more skilled paddling rivals. Then it's back into the water for the Hot-Mile of the Big Three rapids, Gum Tree, Tombi and Hippo Rocks before Mfula Store. From there to Inanda dam the rapids are smaller and the flat sections increase in length and number before the chaos of pools, sand wiers and unstable sand causeways in the zone of the uncontrolled sandwinning operations from Mbeje's Store to the headwaters of the dam. Once in the dam the best of the flat-marathon paddlers will come to he fore with a chance to make up valuable water before the finish at the Msinsi resort.
Sponsors, House of Paint, have put significant support into canoeing in KZN over the past two years, sponsoring Umzinyathi's other major event the South African K4 Championships in August and Natal Canoe Club's Ozzie Gladwin two months ago. They will also be providing a helicopter, essential in the security arrangements for the weekends race which will also be doing flips for lucky-dip winners at Inanda on Sunday. While the non-release of water from Inanda Dam for the race was a serious blow to the the canoeists hoping to race the exciting section of the Dusi course from the dam to Blue Lagoon it was far more so to the water-starved lower section of the Umgeni river where unless the dam overflows there is no natural flow at all apart from releases for canoe races. However the release cofirmed by Umgeni Water from Henley Dam will make for excellent racing on the revised course higher up the two rivers, and hopefully help Inanda Dam to spill sooner rather than later.
DAY 1 Starting Batches can be found HERE
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Stott and Schoeman win
World Marathon Championships K2 title
Now paddle against each other in
Attila Adrovicz (coach)
Josef Martin (manager)
About AYOF 2009
The 2009 Australian Youth Olympic Festival promises to be the biggest and most spectacular yet.
More than 1550 athletes aged 13 –19 years, from 27 countries, will compete across 17 Olympic
sports.
After a successful Beijing Olympics and a looming London Games, both China and Great Britain
are sending large teams. China is sending the biggest team – 273 athletes and officials. Great
Britain – 190, New Zealand – 229 and Japan – 117.
Australia will field a team of 660 athletes and officials. Many of these athletes will go on to wear the
green and gold in London, some at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
Athletics, gymnastics, swimming, diving, hockey, archery and fencing will all be contested at
Sydney Olympic Park. The number of team sports on the program has increased from two to four,
including basketball, hockey, football and water polo.
In the individual sports, triathlon makes a return to the competition program. The sport was last
contested at the 2001 AYOF, when the current Olympic gold medallist Emma Snowsill won the gold
medal.
Athletes from Chile, Norway and Kazakhstan will compete at the Festival for the first time. Chile is
sending a male football team, Norway a beach volleyball team and Kazakhstan athletes to compete
in canoe/kayak slalom.
Please have a look at the following websites:
http://www.olympics.com.au |
