|
Hi ,
With the frenetic level of travel taking place, by our members, at the moment, we should have contemplated moving the CSA offices to OR Tambo for a few weeks.
Only a few short days after our senior sprint team and U12 men's canoe polo teams had returned from their respective world championships, the Junior and U23 sprint team headed over to Szeged in Hungary for, yet another world championships. The bulk of this team only returned the day before yesterday, narrowly missing the departure of the SA SUP team that is travelling to Gdynia (pronunciation gets a bit easier after a few vodka's) Poland.
The SUP World Championships takes place this week, which is the same time that our Olympic Hopes team will be competing in Zemnik, Slovakia. We have a team of 4 girls and 8 boys, who will be pitting themselves against future Olympians from around the world. Team SA will also be using this regatta to test a number of team boats, including two K4's.
Barely 2 weeks after the SUP and Olympic Hopes teams arrive home, our marathon and surfski teams will be off to Portugal to participate in the world marathon and surfski champs.
Performance (and mumparah) of the week, has to go to Hamish Lovemore for winning a bronze medal in the 5000m K1 at the U23 world championships, and the manner in which he did it.
After managing to qualify for an A final in the 1000m K1, two days before, "Mush" lined up against a quality field of the world's best in his age group for the 5000m. He soon made his presence felt, and was involved in a 4 boat break away, and looking strong. While dominating and pulling the front bunch, his eagerness to see where the rest of the field was, caused him to glance around and miss a buoy.
He was forced to back paddle, losing a large gap on the opposition who seized the advantage and put the hammer down. Many would have thrown in the towel in frustration, as trying to catch a quality group who are working together is virtually impossible. Hamish, however, had a crack at it. He burnt a year's supply of matches and eventually scrambled back to the front group and managed to hang on for a medal. Watching on the live streaming, I could hear the groans of disappointment from every one of the SA supporters around the country. One wonders what the outcome may have been if he had the opportunity of an end sprint, without that additional effort in his arms. Roll on marathon champs.
While our international teams are flying the country's flag abroad, the main event on the local calendar, over the past week, was the Breede marathon.
A historical result, in that it is the first time in the history of the race that a husband and wife have won the race in the same year. Hank McGregor partnered Jasper Mocke to a win in the men's section, from a chasing pack of 4 boats which was narrowly led by Clint Cook and Tom Lovemore.
Hank's wife Pippa raced with Jenna Nisbet, winning the women's section ahead of a superb performance by Holly Smith and Neriyah Dill.
The race was held in memory of Oom Giel Van Deventer who drowned on the river in a race a couple of weeks before.
The river was not as full as most would have wished, but it was a good test of river skills, and, by all accounts, and enjoyable outing.
In contrast, the Petrefuel Dolphin Coast Ski race dished up 2 days of ideal paddling conditions. Relatively small surf (this did not prevent a few of us making a royal meal out of both landings), and exciting downwind racing on both days. The local KZN paddlers were given a klap by the sole entrant from the Eastern Cape, in the form of Joshua Fenn. Michelle Burn demonstrated that she is in fine form leading up to the World Ocean Racing championships in a months' time, by easily winning the women's division, finishing in 11th place overall (putting a few male noses out of joint in the process).
All in all, paddling is alive and well in the country.
If only we had the power to improve the state of most of our rivers, we would get back to our glory days.
That’s all for this week.
Have an awesome weekend.
Your SG
Copper
1111
The joke(s), as promised.
Muldoon lived alone in the Irish countryside with only a pet dog for company. One day the dog died, and Muldoon went to the parish priest and asked, 'Father, my dog is dead. Could ya' be saying' a Mass for the poor creature?'
Father Patrick replied, 'I'm afraid not; we cannot have services for an animal in the church. But there are some Baptists down the lane, and there's no tellin' what they believe. Maybe they'll do something for the creature.'
Muldoon said, 'I'll go right away Father. Do ya think £5,000 is enough to donate to them for the service?'
Father Patrick exclaimed, 'Sweet Mary, Mother of Jesus! Why didn't ya tell me the dog was Catholic?
A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes,and said, "I would like to buy some cyanide."
The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?"
The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."
The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, "Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!"
The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a photograph of her husband in a compromising position with the pharmacist's wife.
The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."
|
