Janka Reisz and Klaudia Kmetyo (HUN) lead Holly Smith and Georgia Singe (RSA) around the turn in the K2 Women Junior race during the 2024 Canoe Marathon World Championships on the River Neretva in Metkovic, Croatia.
Metkovic (Croatia) – Team South Africa took their tally to three silver medals on Day 2 of the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Croatia with Georgia Singe grabbing her second medal on Friday.
Singe added a second silver to her tally when, together with Holly Smith, she matched her runner up spot from Thursday’s K1 event by finishing second in the junior K2 race.
And late on Thursday, Hamish Lovemore once again proved his potential when he grabbed his first senior World Championships silver medal to add the U23 gold he won in 2022.
On Saturday the focus moves to the senior competition with the two premier events of the championships take place when the men’s and women’s K1 races take centre stage.
In the men’s race, South Africa’s two entrants certainly have the pedigree and record to be listed as potential winners. Between them, Hank McGregor and Andy Birkett have won the K1 gold medal in eight of the last 12 World Championships, including 2016 and 2017 when they were first and second respectively
However, the man who has broken the South African pair’s stranglehold in recent years is three-time champion Mads Pedersen. The Danish defending champion, who won his first short course title on Thursday by beating Lovemore into second, is the overwhelming favourite and seems like the person most likely to break McGregor’s phenomenal record of seven K1 titles (and maybe event surpass his tally of 12 senior medals in total).
Pedersen is as close to a complete paddler as you are likely to see: He has an incredible top-end speed to get out of trouble and when sprinting for the finish; he is tactically superb; can run well on the portages; has fine-tuned his technique for re-entering the water after the runs; and can also grind away from chasers if he makes a break – as he did with such devastating effect to win in 2023.
If McGregor or Birkett hope to get the better of the Dane they will need to be at their very best and may need to work together as a team.
In the women’s race, South Africa’s Christie Mackenzie will hoping to improve on her bronze medal from 2023, but to do that she is probably going to have to beat five-time champion and 2023 winner Vanda Kiszli from Hungary, as well as short course winner Melina Andersson from Sweden. Mackenzie will be joined on the start line by compatriot Nix Birkett.
The only other South Africans in action on Saturday at Ryley Smith and Keegan Vogt in the junior K1 race.
In the opening event on Friday, Georgia Singe added a second silver to her tally when, together with Holly Smith in the junior K2 race, she matched her runner up spot from the K1 event on Thursday.
The eventual race winners, Panni Kadler and Panka Zatyko from Hungary, broke away at the first portage and were never threatened again, with Singe and Smith part of a three-boat chasing group. At the second portage the South African pair led into the portage and were able to make a break with the British crew of Annabel Hutchinson and Mollie Ball, to effectively decide the three medallists.
There was little change until the final lap where Singe and Smith upped the pace at the final turn dropped the British duo to cruise home in second behind the Hungarians, with the Britons third.
In the women’s U23 race, Saskia Hockly surprisingly struggled to settle in the front group and eventually withdrew after she was dropped with two laps to go, while Jade Wilson swam soon after the start and also withdrew. The men’s U23 race was due to start on Friday evening with Uli Hart and Matt Fenn carrying the hopes of South Africans.
Late on Thursday, Lovemore added a second silver medal to South Africa’s tally when he was the only paddler to apply any kind of pressure to Pedersen in the final of the men’s short course race.
Lovemore was one of the main protagonists in shaping the lead group off the start line and then came off the first of two portages handily placed with Pedersen. Behind them, a messy portage and chaotic turn just after the run allowed the two leaders to consolidate their lead and settle into a two-paddler shootout for gold.
Although Lovemore hung on gamely for another lap and a half, Pedersen was clearly the stronger of the pair and it was no surprise when he broke away at the final turn and powered home for his eighth senior medal.
For Lovemore, the silver medal so soon just after his win at the B sprint final at the Paris Olympics, hints that the 2022 U23 World Champion could just be the main challenger for Pedersen in the future.