canoeing

CAPE TOWN – In a Prescient Freedom Paddle field packed with stars of the international paddling world, current women's Ocean Racing World Champion Kira Bester stands out as one of the superstars of the race around Robben Island on April 27.

Hartley doubles up with another bronze in Prague Bridgitte Hartley added a bronze medal in the women’s 26,2km marathon in the Czech Republic on Sunday to the bronze she won over the short course on Saturday.

It’s GOLD for Birkett at 2022 World Games   Team SA’s Andy Birkett struck gold at the 2022 World Games being held in Birmingham, Alabama, when he won the men’s canoe marathon, K1 standard distance final. Birkett won the grueling event in 1hr 23min 52sec, finishing 30 seconds ahead of Denmark’s silver medallist Mads Brandt Pederesen. “The pace that Mads was setting down was insane!” said Birkett after the eight-lap final. “He has taken the race from a slow, strategic race with a big end sprint to a fast race, and to be competitive in the end sprint you have to be there. “I had...

Lovemore continues rise with World Under-23 bronze   South Africa’s premier marathon paddler Hamish Lovemore added a sprint world championship bronze to his growing list of achievements in the Under-23 men’s 5000m final in Szeged on Sunday. Lovemore showed his strong form ahead of the upcoming ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships with his result this weekend at the Junior & Under-23 Sprint Championships. His goal was the overall win however things didn’t go quite his own way through the race but he did well to finish on the podium and earn a first Under 23 men’s medal at...

Olympic Hopes the first step for SA sprints future As the international paddling season continues along at a furious speed, Team South Africa’s twelve-person strong team will do battle with the world’s best junior paddlers at the 2022 Olympic Hopes Regatta in Bratislava from 8-11 September. For a number of the team this will be their first taste of international competition and to be able to face the best paddlers in the world in their age group will be an experience that they will remember as they forge a career in sprint paddling. The South African team has assembled two K4 boats,...

Marathon worlds – Lovemore wraps up two months of preparation in Europe National marathon champion Hamish Lovemore has set his sights on the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Portugal that get under way this week after spending almost two months in Europe training and preparing with elite marathon racers in Denmark and Portugal, and sharpening his sprint skills at the Under 23 sprint world championships in Hungary. With the marathon world title deciders getting under way in Ponte de Lima on 29 September, Lovemore is looking forward to reconnecting with his South African team mates...

SA Masters open marathon medal account The South African paddlers opened the team medal account with six medals on the first day of the Masters Cup event that precedes the start of the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Portugal. In one of the final races of the day Pretoria stalwart Gustav Radloff took the gold medal in the K1 Men 50-54 race, cheered home by a large and vocal group of South African supporters on the banks of the river. Seasoned Masters Cup racer Allan Hold got the ball rolling with a silver medal in the K1 Men 70-74 in a thrilling duel with eventual winner Brian...

Saskia Hockly medals for SA on the opening day of marathon worlds Saskia Hockly opened the Team South Africa medal account at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships on Thursday by winning her second successive Junior Women’s K1 bronze medal. The Durban-based teenager repeated her performance of twelve months ago in Romania when she finished third behind the powerhouse Hungarian duo of Kata Horvath and Zsofia Szerafin. I think it was one of the toughest races of my life,” Hockly said. “I was just getting messed around by those girls and I think the weed also played a big part, getting...

Lovemore stars in four medal haul for Team SA at marathon worlds Hamish Lovemore became the Under 23 marathon world champion as South African junior and Under 23 paddlers grabbed four medals at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships on Friday, as Lovemore won his gold and Uli Hart finished third in the men’s Under 23  K1 race, Saskia and Valmajean Hockly won the junior K2 silver and Christie Mackenzie added the Women’s Under 23 K1 bronze. Lovemore and Hart were central to a six boat break that seized control of the race by lap four of the 23 kiloemtre, seven-lap contest, carefully...

Andy Birkett wins another singles world title   Ponte de Lima - Andy Birkett delivered a marathon racing masterclass as he became the 2022 world champion, winning a thrilling senior men's K1 gold medal at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships on the Lima River on Saturday afternoon.   Birkett had to fight to stay in contention during the early part of the race, bouncing back from an unusually poor portage to put himself in the ideal position for the end-sprint involving five athletes.   Birkett, who also won the gold medal at the World Games in the USA earlier in...

Strongest SA team set for Surfski worlds Viana do Castelo – The biggest and strongest South African team of surfski paddlers ever assembled has gathered on the Portuguese coast for the ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships being raced as part of the annual Nelo Summer Challenge on Thursday, including all seven medallists from last year’s world championships.After scooping five of the six ICF world titles on offer at the 2021 Surfski World Champs in Lanzarote in July 2021 with a team heavily reduced in size by visa restrictions, the South African team in Portugal includes all the...

Kenny Rice leads ten medal charge at surfski world champs Viana do Castelo, Portugal – Kenny Rice won the World Surfski crown in a gutsy charge in the closing stages of the Nelo Summer Challenge that hosted the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships on Thursday afternoon, while Uli Hart retained his Under 23 world title, Saskia Hockly successfully defended her title in the junior women’s race and Josh Smith added a fourth gold medal winning the junior men’s title. Rice, who finished runner up to his older brother and double world champion Sean Rice at the world championships ín 2019, edged...

SA K1 – Birkett and Hartley win at the Fish Andy Birkett and Bridgitte Hartley were crowned SA K1 River champions after wrapping up victories in the men’s and women’s races at the 40th Fish River Canoe Marathon on Saturday. A week after he won the world marathon title, Birkett showed his class and form as he added another four minutes to his overnight lead as he posted a flawless final stage to claim the title. With pressure off, Birkett said that he was able to enjoy the 38 kilometre second stage from Knutsford to the finish in Cradock. “I just had a lot of fun out on the river...

Dramatic new look for Dusi 2023 With a last-minute change to the start venue, this year’s Dusi Canoe Marathon will have a different look as the paddlers compete for one of the most coveted titles in river paddling from Thursday to Saturday. With rain predicted for the opening day on Thursday, paddlers will set off from the Bishopstowe Country Club and not the traditional start at Camps Drift Canal as organisers heed calls from environmental groups to avoid the Msundusi River through Pietermaritzburg. The Mngeni River has also taken on a different shape. Following April’s floods the river...

Usual suspects to the fore on Dusi day one After a shorter, but more intense, first stage of the 2023 Dusi Canoe Marathon, favourites Andy Birkett and Christie Mackenzie took the stage honours in contrasting races on Thursday. With the adjusted start at Bishopstowe Country Club, paddlers started with a portage where Team MyLife’s Msawenkosi Mtolo took the initiative and raced to an early lead. Birkett put in after that initial portage in fifth place, but the twelve-time champion slowly picked off the field to hit the Geoff’s Road portage alongside Mtolo at the front of the race. The...

Defending champs Birkett and Mackenzie extend their Dusi reigns A stage with many unknowns couldn’t curtail the respective title charges of K1 defending champions Andy Birkett and Christie Mackenzie, who powered to the men’s and women’s Dusi Canoe Marathon titles on Saturday. Both started the stage with comfortable leads on Saturday morning and had contrasting days as Birkett meticulously negotiated his way home, while Mackenzie’s two swims were blemishes on an otherwise dominant performance in the women’s race. Following another flawless day in the boat, Euro Steel’s Birkett said that...

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...

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...

Andy Birkett honoured at SA Sports Awards World champion paddler Andy Birkett was honoured with a Ministers Excellence Award at the SA Sports Awards at Sun City on Saturday night, capping off a remarkable year in which he established himself as the best male athlete in world marathon racing. Birkett won the ICF Senior Men’s K1 marathon crown in Spain last year in a riveting duel with local favourite Jose Ramalho and Danish defending world champion Mads Pedersen, less than three months after he had won the Senior Men’s K1 marathon title at the World Games in the US city of Birmingham,...