A South African canoeing team packed with potential medallists, from a squad of future stars and older heroes, will be in action in Metkovic in Croatia this week for the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.
The youth and experience cliché is apt for the squad that includes vastly experienced former World Champions such as Hank McGregor and Andy Birkett – who have dominated the international marathon scene for the past few years – mixed up with a slew of youngsters who have already started proving themselves on the international stage.
The four-day championships starts with a day of mostly K1 short course racing for the senior paddlers on Thursday. This hurly burly format rewards competitors for their speed, tactics, aggression and a healthy dose of luck in three-lap races that contain two portages in less than four kilometres of high-intensity action.
Leading the short-course charge for South Africa will be 2012 London Olympic Games medallist Bridgitte Hartley and Pippa McGregor for the women, while recent Paris Olympic B finalist Hamish Lovemore and Clint Cook are in action for the men. All four will race heats in the morning and should have a good chance to qualify for their respective afternoon finals.
The only other South Africans competing on the opening day will be Holly Smith and Georgia Singe in the junior women’s K1 long course final. The pair were surprise gold medallists in the junior women’s K2 race a year ago and on Friday are favourites to defend that title, but will be hoping for some K1 medals in the junior singles race on Thursday.
Singe in particular has used her World Championship glory as a springboard to some great local results over the past 12 months and the South African camp is hoping for at least one medal in the opening event.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday’s action is all long-course racing, when McGregor, Birkett and Lovemore are the main medal hopes for the men, while Smith and Singe join Christie Mackenzie and Saskia Hockly as genuine potential medallist in the women’s events.
The next four days of elite racing come on the back of the Marathon Masters World Championships at the same venue in Metkovic, and the “oldies” have certainly given the elite paddlers plenty of motivation with their medal haul on Monday and Tuesday.
Ironically, leading the charge of the “old” brigade was one of those elite paddlers, with former Olympic medallist Hartley enjoying a perfect warm-up and setting herself up for her challenge in Thursday’s short course event with two gold medals in the masters races on Monday and Tuesday.
Hartley won the women’s K1 race in the 40 to 44 age group and then picked up a second gold with Ricardo Talevi when they were comfortable winners of the K2 mixed 35-49 race by more than two minutes.
The masters event got off to a perfect start on Monday with one of South Africa’s international stars from the 1980s, Graham Monteith, convincingly winning the opening race of the regatta. Monteith ended 30 seconds clear of Briton Stephen Missen with South African Theo Smit claiming the bronze in the K1 Men’s 65-69 event.
The only other gold medal on the opening day of singles events went to Hartley (K1 Women’s 40-44), but silver medals were awarded to Michael-John Robb (K1 Men’s 35-39), Talevi (K1 Men’s 45-49) and Pippa McGregor (K1 Women’s 35-39); while Gustav Radloff (K1 Men’s 55-59) claimed a bronze.
On the second day of racing, in the doubles events, Linton Hope and Bruce Wenke led home a near South African clean-sweep of the podium. Hope and Wenke claimed the gold in the K2 Men’s 65-69 race, with with compatriot Chris Visser teaming up with Spaniard Jaime Llamedo for second place, before the South African combination of Pierre van der Merwe and Theo Smit claimed the bronze.
Other doubles gold medal winners were Nigel Briggs and Peter O’Connor (K2 Men’s 70-74); Robb and Robert Crichton (K2 Men’s 35-39); Talevi, with Japan’s Lajos Gyokos (K2 Men’s 40-44); Michael Stewart and Pieter Engelbrecht (K2 Men’s 50-54), and Bradley Fisher and Radloff (K2 Men’s 55-59). The only silver medal winners were Alex Roberts and Hein Van Rooyen (K2 Men’s 40-44); while the bronze medallists were Mark Garden and Matthew Ballenden (bronze, K2 Men’s 45-49) and Jason Ekstrand and Richard Lowe (K2 Men’s 50-54).
SA Team:
Women
Bridgitte Hartley (Women’s Short Course)
Christie Mackenzie (Women’s K1 & K2)
Georgia Singe (Junior Women’s K1 & K2)
Hana Newlands (Junior Women’s K2)
Holly Smith (Junior Women’s K1 & K2)
Jade Wilson (Women’s K2 & U23 K1)
Nicole Birkett (Women’s K1 & K2)
Pippa Mcgregor (Women’s Short Course)
Saskia Hockly (Women’s K2 & U23 K1)
Tayla Norton (Junior Women’s K2)
Men
Andrew Birkett (Men’s K1 & K2)
Clinton Cook (Men’s Short Course)
Hamish Lovemore (Men’s K2 & Short Course)
Hank Mcgregor (Men’s K1 & K2)
Jared Shrimpton (Junior Men’s K2)
Keegan Vogt (Junior Men’s K1)
Matthew Fenn (Men’s U23 K1)
Ryley Smith (Junior Men’s K1 & K2)
Theo Dreyer (Junior Men’s K2)
Tyde Malherbe (Junior Men’s K2)
Uli Hart (Men’s K2 & U23 K1)