Pitești, Romania -As the members of the senior and junior team started arriving, the veteran and masters paddlers opened the Team South Africa challenge at the ICF Canoe Marathon world title deciders with Capetonian Mike Monson bagging the first medal for the team.
Monson finished third in the Masters K1 race for 65-69 year old athletes to open the Team South Africa account on the first day of the Masters Cup that traditionally precedes the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships.
Earlier in the day Colin Simpkins fired the first shot for the contingent of South African masters paddlers, which is much smaller than usual, with a top five finish in men’s K1 61-64 race.
Another Capetonian Lis Hart went one better in the women’s K1 55-59 year race, falling one place short of a podium finish.
In the last race of the opening day Pietermaritzburg’s Shane Millward finished sixth in the men’s K1 51-54 year title decider.
The Masters Cup continues on Tuesday as the big name paddlers continue to arrive in Pitești ahead of the start of the World Championships proper on Thursday.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
MASTERS CUP
K1 Masters 61-64 19km
1 Francisco Vazquez ESP 1:32:40.66
2 Thomas Kittner GER 1:32:41.76
3 Per Horl DEN 1:33:56.87
4 Johan Dahl SWE 1:33:58.29
5 Colin Simpkins RSA 1:35:00.88
K1 Masters 65-69 15,4km
1 Roman Vernkhoff EST 1:23:05.74
2 Ioan Dinca ROU 1:25:14.57
3 Mike Monson RSA 1:28:58.28
K1 Women 55-59
1 Anzhela Golovina RCF 1:22:31.87
2 Sandra Steraj ITA 1:25:07.96
3 Edit Fried CAN 1:26:22.97
4 Lis Hart RSA 1:28:11.61
K1 Men 51-54 19km
1 Bernardo Sanchez ESP 1:27:58.72
2 Klaus Gieres GER 1:28:15.01
3 Kenneth Pedersen DEN 1:31:42.19
4 Alessandro Tiozzo ITA 1:32:48.84
5 Michal Merhaut CZE 1:32:51.80
6 Shane Millward RSA 1:33:29.56