Skip to main content
May 9, 2024
Canoeing SA/Gameplan Media Esti Olivier (right) and Tiffany Koch resurrected a partnership from eight years ago to earn selection for the SA Canoe team to go to the Paris Olympics. Szeged, Hungary – South Africa's Olympic canoeists get a taste of what lies ahead this weekend as they take the next paddle strokes on their journey to Paris 2024 at the first World Cup event of the year in Szeged, Hungary. South Africa has a team of seven paddlers at the regatta, but all eyes will be on the men's crew of Andrew Birkett and Hamish Lovemore, and the fairytale women's duo of Esti Olivier and Tiffan…

Mar 25, 2024
VICTORIA LAKE (Gauteng) – Esti Olivier and Tiffany Koch overcame tricky conditions in a tense winner-takes-all shootout to claim the last places in the South African Olympic Canoeing team selected at the SA Championships at Victoria Lake in Germiston on Sunday. The pair beat 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Bridgitte Hartley and former World Surfski Champion Michelle Burn in the final leg of the three-race shootout to earn the women’s 500m K2 place in the team to go to Paris in August. On Friday, Olivier and Koch narrowly won the women’s 500m K2 SA Championships final, but Hartley and Burn were…

Mar 24, 2024
VICTORIA LAKE (Gauteng) – Former Olympic medalist Bridgitte Hartley and former World Surfski Champion Michelle Burn on Saturday overturned a narrow loss the day before to take the Paris Olympic canoeing trial to a winner-take-all shootout. The narrow margin of Esti Olivier and Tiffany Koch’s win on Friday in the 500m K2 final at the South African Canoe Championships at Victoria Lake in Germiston, meant the selectors implemented the option of a three-race shootout to select the women’s crew to go to the Paris Olympics. Friday’s 500m K2 final was the first leg with the two extra races schedule…

Mar 23, 2024
VICTORIA LAKE (Gauteng) – With the 2024 Olympics looming, the four South Africans representing the canoeing team in Paris are set to be decided at the South African Sprint Canoe Championships on Victoria Lake in Gauteng from Friday to Sunday this weekend. Four athletes will emerge from the men’s and women’s 500m K2 races respectively to represent South Africa in Paris, but there is plenty of intrigue about the selections, with a block of river and marathon paddlers opting for a last-minute bid for Olympic glory. A total of five South African sprint teams will be chosen from the results of the…

Feb 14, 2024
Pietermaritzburg – The 2024 Dusi Canoe Marathon is shaping up to be a tough clash between KZN and Eastern Cape paddlers in both the men’s and women’s races, with a few Gauteng wildcards thrown in. The men’s race from Bishopstowe Country Club just outside Pietermaritzburg to Blue Lagoon in Durban on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, is showing all the signs of an intriguing inter-provincial rivalry between powerful paddlers and quick runners. The Eastern Cape contingent is led by the undisputed current super-star of the Dusi, 13-time race winner Andy Birkett. The wily former World Champion has…

Mar 22, 2023
SA canoeing legend Hartley hangs up her sprint paddle Canoeing South Africa has lavished thanks and praise on London Olympic Games medallist Bridgitte Hartley after she announced her retirement from sprint canoeing this week. Hartley made headlines in 2012 when she won South Africa’s first – and still only – medal in sprint canoeing, and also became the first African athlete to podium in that Olympic discipline. “What more can we say about our sprint queen Bridgitte Hartley?” said Canoeing South Africa president Kim Pople. “She has done it all. Olympic medal. World Champs medals…

Feb 9, 2023
Hundreds of rowers expected at this weekend’s Buffalo Regatta The road to Buffalo City has started for rowers from around the country. The 2023 regatta takes place from 9 to 11 February at the East London Boating Association (ELBA). The RMB Buffalo Regatta is the oldest sporting event in South Africa, dating back to 1881. The regatta has survived several wars (including two world wars), as well as the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been dubbed SA’s best regatta by Olympic rower Jake Green, who himself won the Silver Sculls Trophy last year. “I think the atmosphere created by fitting everyone fr…