Bester confident of defending her world title

DURBAN – Defending World Champion, Cape Town's Kira Bester, could not hide her delight as she talked about the course and conditions chosen for the ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships in Durban this weekend.

"I am excited," the 23-year-old said on Thursday, and then added again for extra emphasis: "I'm excited."

On Wednesday the race committee made the decision to make use of the final day of the three-day race window for the championship's main event, the singles race. The decision is to use a course starting from the Durban Undersea Club (DUC) at Point Water Sports Club and finish at Westbrook 34km north of Durban, so as to best make use of the strong south-westerly wind predicted on Sunday.

"I am very happy about the course choice. It's actually the course that I was hoping would be selected, because it means a little bit of technique is needed," said Bester after she had just finished a training paddle on the course on Thursday morning. "It's not just a straightforward downwind, that's coming from your back. You actually have to use your brain to think of what line you need to take, and I enjoy racing in that type of conditions. So yeah, it's definitely my favourite choice."

Bester is happy the training to defend the title she won in 2024 in Portugal had gone according to plan and was looking forward to Sunday's race.

"Training's been good, and I am feeling good. You don't race not to try and win, otherwise, I don't really know why you'd race, but I would say it's been a good build up and I'm happy with it and feeling confident ... so yeah, it's going to be a fun race."

"Based off of what the history says, I would guess that Michelle (Burn) and Dani (Richards) are the other favourites, but really I'm not ruling out anyone. I am going to line up as if every single one of those people are just as good as me."

Burn was the 2019 World Champion and finished second behind Bester in Portugal. With her local knowledge, the Durban resident is many people's favourite to take the victory. Richards won the world title in 2019 and is returning to surfski paddling after unluckily missing out on selection for New Zealand's sprint team to compete at the Olympics last year.

"You can't dismiss anyone as a potential threat. You just don't know what they've been doing in the off-season, so I wouldn't rule anyone out. And we could see a European coming out of nowhere and winning."

The European challenge is likely to be led by Spaniard Judit Verges, whose two third-place finishes at the singles World Championships are the only northern hemisphere medals won in the women's race.

Bester believes Melanie van Niekerk could be another strong contender: "Melanie has definitely been training well, and she's looking strong. She's really enjoying her new boat and so she's going to be a big competition for all of us. She's strong on the downwind and she's strong on the flat, especially with the new boat, so she'll definitely be up there and in contention I think."

One disappointment for Bester is the decision to hold the singles race on Sunday means she will not be competing in the mixed doubles race. The mixed doubles has been scheduled to take place on Saturday from DUC to Amanzimtoti in a north-easterly wind that is predicted for Saturday.

"I will definitely not be doing the mixed doubles race," said Bester. "It's definitely a pity. I think everyone was very excited to race the mixed doubles, it was going to be a great extra event. There were really some cool combos that were going to be on that line, and it was going to be a nice, strong competition. But I mean, it is what it is, so we can't cry about it."