Canoeing | World is watching Lovemore's progression

MILAN (Italy) – South African canoeist Hamish Lovemore is being tipped by some of the world's experts as one of the paddlers expected to shine at this week's ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Milan, Italy.

Hamish Lovemore is being tipped by the pundits to get a medal at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships.

The 26-year-old double medalist from the recent World Games, this week takes the next paddle strokes on his long road towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, and his recent performances are forcing the world's experts to sit up and take notice.

The World Championships run from Wednesday until Sunday, with Lovemore hoping his Olympic dreams continue to fly high on Idroscalo, an artificial lake that was originally constructed as a seaplane airport. Lovemore will take part in the 1 000m and 5 000m events, with compatriots Esti Olivier and Henry van der Walt both racing over 200m and 500m.

A panel of three international canoeing commentators recently gave their predictions for Milan and Lovemore featured prominently.

Australia's Alyce Wood tipped him as a dark horse in the 1 000m event, particularly if the conditions were not perfect: "Fresh off his first World Cup medal, Hamish Lovemore is my dark horse going into the men's K1 1000. In true South African form, he loves marathon racing and puts his hand up for as many competitions as possible."

"Whilst he may not be the speediest out of the blocks, keep an eye out for him near the end, especially if we see any wind or chop about," she added.

Another former World Champion, Great Britain's Emma Wiggs, said she was interested to see how Lovemore progressed after winning his first senior World Cup sprint medal earlier this year.

"I'll be keeping an eye on Hamish Lovemore," said the former Olympic gold medalist. "He exploded onto the sprint scene this year with a silver in Szeged, after mainly doing marathon. He's an exciting talent who just seems to race without fear."

Ireland's Jennifer Egan-Simmons said she thinks Lovemore is a "dark horse for the men's K1 1 000m final. He won his first K1 1 000m World Cup medal this year in Szeged, Hungary, winning the silver medal ... and was just pipped on the line by Balint Kopasz. Lovemore will want to make his stamp at the World Championships level in the men's K1 1 000m final."

Lovemore, who two weeks ago narrowly missed out on the gold medals in the final sprint in both the long and short marathon events at the World Games, surprised the sprint canoeing world after he converted from marathon and river racing as he prepared for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

In Paris he won the K1 1 000m B Final, and then added to his reputation with a silver medal at the opening World Cup event this year in Hungary, where he narrowly lost to local Kopasz.

Lovemore opens his account on Wednesday in the K1 1 000m heats and will also be paddling in the final event of the championships on Sunday, where he is expected to feature prominently in the long 5 000m event.

Olivier and Van der Walt will also feature in their first heats on Wednesday and then both also have heats for their second events on Thursday.

SA Team
Hamish Lovemore: K1 Men 1 000m, K1 Men 5 000m
Henry van der Walt: K1 Men 200m, K1 Men 500m
Esti Olivier: K1 Women 200m, K1 Women 500m