Canoeing | Another silver medal for Lovemore's collection

MILAN (Italy) – Hamish Lovemore added another silver medal to his impressive collection from major international canoeing competitions in 2025 when he finished second in the 5 000m event at the ICF Sprint World Championships in Milan, Italy, on Sunday afternoon.

Lovemore and Denmark's Mads Pedersen, the top two at both marathon canoeing events at the World Games in China earlier this month, resumed battle in the final event of the five-day Sprint Championships. For the third time in three weeks, the Dane emerged with the gold, while South Africa's rising star had to settle for second place in the third race where the pair were so dominant, they had broken away and locked up the top two steps of the podium before the halfway mark.

In both events at the World Games, Pedersen needed a blistering finish sprint to see off the challenge of Lovemore, but this time he was able to work the young South African off his wave slightly earlier on the final lap, and could cruise across the line with a 19-second lead. Hungary's Adam Varga was a distant third.

The pair will face off twice more in two weeks time when they are both entered in the short course and the long course races at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Gyor, Hungary, on September 4-7. Such has been their dominance in recent weeks, it is likely they will claim the top two steps of the podium in both races, but Lovemore and his legion of fans in South Africa are desperately hoping he can find a way to reverse the recent results.

Hamish Lovemore and Mads Pedersen once again dominated the racing when they finished in the top two places at the 5 000m K1 event at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships

Lovemore's result in Milan was the first silver medal a South African has won at the Sprint World Championships, and the first medal of any colour since Bridgitte Hartley won bronze in Portugal in 2018.

Lovemore's medal in Milan, plus the two from China, means he has now won four silver medals in major competitions in 2025 after he started his international season with a second position in the 1 000m event at the opening Sprint World Cup regatta in Szeged in Hungary in May.

In other events at these World Championships, Lovemore and Esti Olivier both qualified for B finals in the 1 000m and 200m respectively, with Lovemore finishing second and Olivier sixth in those races.

Olivier was also knocked out in the semi-finals of the 500m, while Henry van der Walt suffered the same fate in his 200m event and was unable to progress from the heats in his 500m event.

Results Summary
Hamish Lovemore: K1 Men 1 000m - 2nd in B final; K1 Men 5 000m - 2nd in final.
Henry van der Walt: K1 Men 200m - 8th in semi-final; K1 Men 500m - 6th in heats.
Esti Olivier: K1 Women 200m - 6th in B final; K1 Women 500m - 8th in semi-final.

pics: ICF / Gameplan Media