Shongweni Dam comes back to life this weekend after brief respite after a busy sprint season when the South African Canoe Polo Championships take centre stage with the country’s top players converging on what should prove to be a competitive 2016 national competition from 16-17 April.
The tournament includes powerhouses of South African Canoe Polo – KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and Western Province – and will include teams in the Open Men’s and Women’s, Under 21 Men’s, Under 16 Men’s and Development categories.
Chairman of the South African Canoe Polo Committee, Chris de Bree is looking forward to the national championships and with the best players set to turn out across the various age groups and categories, the event promises to be an exciting affair.
“We have the top provinces in the country taking each other on over two days of high quality canoe polo,” De Bree said.
“We are hoping that we can continue to see an improvement in the quality of play throughout the country and the inclusion of a development team is a great step in the right direction for the sport!” he added.
The Shongweni venue has been a hive of paddling activity over the past month and will once again be the focal point this weekend with De Bree pleased the championships can take place at such a high quality venue.
“Shongweni is such a great venue for canoe polo – one of my personal favourites – and it is great that they are trying to make a more permanent venue for the sport.
“The competition is going to be tough across all of the divisions however I would say that Gauteng probably go in as favourites but the local KZN side are a team that you can never write off.
“The competition is going to be fierce, which is exactly what we want to see!” an excited de Bree mentioned.