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The drought has been broken.
South Africa has not won a men’s sprinting medal at a World Cup, or a World Championships since the early 2000’s.
The truth be told, we were not expecting one for quite some time either. Our past medals came from a time when there was, at least, a smattering of funding available and a national coach.
Those days are long gone, and the SA sprinters of today face an uphill battle of self financing and mostly self coaching. There is no recognised national squad and only one permanent facility.
Hamish Lovemore’s performance in the men’s K1 1000m at Szeged, in Hungary last week left a lot of gaping mouths and sent our social media platforms into the red line.
Hungary is the leading nation in the world at sprinting; Szeged is the holy grail of sprinting venues; and The new ICF Olympic qualifying criteria are based on ranking points. All of which meant all the world’s top paddlers were present.
By his own admission, Hamish had been hoping for an A final. Once he had made that, his aim was for a top 5.
He had not made the A final at the Olympic Games in Paris, and many thought that his win in the B final was a flash in the pan.
With the broader participation criteria of a World Cup, all top sprinters are aware that it is more difficult to win a medal at a competitive world cup than it is to win one at the Olympics.
The A final was loaded, with Portuguese legend Fernando Pimenta, 2020 Olympic gold medallist (and 2024 bronze) Balint Kopasz from Hungary, 2024 Olympic Gold medallist, Josef Dostal (Czech), 2024 silver medallist Adam Varga (Hungary), Olympic gold medallist Thomas Green (Australia), and the rest being the “who’s who” of the current sprinting crop.
The K1 1000m is the blue-ribbon event of regattas.
Hamish stuck to a race plan and found himself in the unlikely position, with his nose ahead with just metres to go.
It was the Hungarian, Balint Kopasz who found an extra couple of strokes to deny the upset of the decade, winning by a mere 0.17 of a second.
The current Olympic champion, Dostal, only managing 3rd, a full 2.45 seconds behind.
A time of under three and a half minutes for a kilometre is beyond comprehension for almost all of us. For 95% of us, a time under 4 minutes is unachievable. Even 5 minutes for a km is a stretch.
This result is tantamount to a club pro from Pretoria, using clubs that nobody else uses, forcing Tiger Woods into a playoff at Augusta, at the Masters, in his prime.
Social media went berserk, and many from around the world have sat up and noticed that there is a place called KZN in a small country called South Africa.
His performance in the K1 5000m, two days later, is something that he would rather erase from the memory banks, finishing a disappointing 5th after starting as the odds-on favourite. He got properly worked over by the “big boys” and portaged like a sprinter instead of a marathon paddler.
Next up for him will be the World Sprint Championships in Milan on 20-24th August. Let’s see if he has anything left in his arms after the World Games marathon less than two weeks before. |
