Following the Masters, it was the turn of the Juniors, the U23’s and the Seniors to contest the 2024 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Metković, Croatia. The first of the races was the Junior Girls and after a frenetic start there was a bunch of ten in contention. By lap 2 the lead bunch was down to 5 with Capetonian Georgia Singe in the mix. Her running was the best by far and on the final portage she looked to have a 20m lead, but two others caught her after the put in. Georgia pulled all of the last short lap, but she just couldn’t hold her lead and had settle for SA’s first Silver.
In the Women’s Short Course events neither Bridgitte Hartley nor Pippa McGregor made the final, which was won by the Swede Melina Andersson, while the favoured Hungarian, Vanda Kiszli was 3rd. 46 men contested the Short Course heats with Hamish Lovemore fresh from the Olympics making the final 20, and Clint just missing out. In the sprint to the first portage all the big names were up there including Pederson, Pimenta, Russell, Alonso, Ramalho and Candy along with Hamish who led going into the takeout. Pederson was 5th on the run, but his put-in was so good that he took the lead from there. By the second portage there were just two boats in the race for Gold, with Pederson ahead of Hamish and once again Pederson’s perfected put-in made the difference so he paddled alone to take Gold with Hamish earning South Africa’s second Silver medal, well ahead of a fight between four for Bronze.
On day 2 the Junior Girls K2 race was dominated by Hungary, behind which there was a South African and a British boat fighting for second and having British and South African (Bridgitte Hartley & Dave McCloud) commentators made for added rivalry. On the last short lap Holly Smith & Georgia Singe pulled away to win South Africa’s third Silver medal.
SA’s U23 Girls didn’t have a good day. Jade Wilson took a swim 100m from the start and that was the end of her race. Saskia Hockly stayed with a lead bunch of 6 for the first 4 laps and then it was unclear what happened, but she also ended up with a DNF. In contrast, SA’s U23 Men had a cracker of a race. From the outset there was heaps of testosterone and multiple attacks amongst a front bunch of 16 who all tried to assert their dominance. At the second set of buoys there was a clash of boats; some were spun out and others were dropped, reducing the lead pack to 8 including Uli Hart and Matt Fenn, who got abuse from the British commentator Ivan Lawler for his dodgy haircut and his race tactics, which he likened to a ping pong ball in a washing machine. After the first portage there were just 6 boats in the contention and then with a lap to go, the Dane Knudsen went off on his own, leaving 5 to decided second and third place. On the final portage, Matt’s take-out wasn’t great; he and another fell out of contention, leaving Uli Hart and two others to fight for the last two medals. Uli was superb in the end sprint and claimed South Africa’s 4th Silver, while Matt ended up 6th in what was fantastic racing.
The Senior Ladies race was also a cracker, but sadly not for South Africa where we also had two DNFs with Nix Birkett’s footrest falling out while Christie wasn’t feeling well and withdrew. The race became a 4-boat affair including the first 3 from the Short Course race along with an Aussie, who took a swim at the final portage leaving the Hungarians and a Swede to decide the medals. Andersson was strongest in the end sprint and won a second Gold, ahead of the Hungarians Kiszli and Kohalmi.
The Junior Men K1 was also a great race and SA’s Keegan Vogt was in the mix for the medals all the way until the last portage, when he seemed to run out of steam, but the U16 finished in a very creditable 4th – the future looks bright for the gutsy young Maritzburg College man.
Then it was the K1 Men, where the conditions were horribly rough with waves literally breaking over and into boats. Mads Pederson was the only paddler with a wave deflector (along with a boat with bulkheads), and this would pay handsome dividends. Andy Birkett was on his slip for a while but after just 3 minutes his nose started to go down and then his boat sank; as did 4 others. By the end of lap 1, Pedersen and the Spaniard Martin had broken away on their own. Hank appeared to revel in the rough conditions and stayed with the chase pack till the final lap. Pederson dropped Martin on the start of lap 6 and went on to win his second Gold while Ramalho hunted down Martin to take Silver. Hank ended up 9th with the commentators saying McGregor looked both happy and gracious in defeat, something you would not have seen 15 years ago. They also talked up his desire to now win the Surfski title more than the marathon. Andy got back in his boat and came 15th, some 9 minutes off the pace, with the commentators saying that perhaps he should have saved his energy for the K2 race.
On the Sunday morning the K2 Junior Men enjoyed flat calm conditions, but the racing was frenetic. Ryley Smith & Jared Shrimpton were in the front bunch until they got to the to the difficult top buoy and appeared to get pushed out, and from there they went backwards to end up 18th with Theo Dreyer & Tyde Malherbe overtaking them to finish in 14th position.
In the Senior Ladies K2 event South Africa had combos of Jade Wilson & Nicole Birkett along with Christie Mackenzie & Saskia Hockly and for the first two laps both crews were in the contest, but the first portage broke up the big lead bunch. The two Hungarian crews ran really well, as did Christie & Saskia and then it looked to be a 3-boat race for Gold. The Hungarian crews appeared to be happy to do most the work with Christie & Saskia sitting on their tails but after the second portage one Hungarian crew lost their steering leaving just two boats out front. The remaining Hungarian crew always looked stronger and took Gold, with Christie & Saskia earning South Africa’s 5th Silver medal; a fantastic result following their K1 disappointments. The Swedish boat was 3rd with Jade & Nix finishing in a fine 5th place.
The showcase Men’s K2 event was stacked with all the big names from Hungary, Denmark, France, Portugal and South Africa where we had Hank & Uli along with Andy & Hamish as pre-race favourites. For the first two laps there was a big bunch of 9 boats but Hank & Uli and 3 other boats were dropped after the first portage, with Andy & Hamish remaining in the front bunch of 5, until they abandoned the race on lap 4. In the end the win went to Portugal’s Pimento and Ramalho ahead of France and Hungary. Denmark with Pedersen took 4th while Hank and Uli took 5th place.
In total, Hungary dominated with 17 medals while South Africa with 5 Silvers was 6th overall, somewhat outside the league of leading nations where we thought we would be.
Next up it’s the ICF Ocean Racing Championships in Madeira from October 4th-6th, where we are also considered to be a leading nation; good luck guys and girls, and here’s to the GOAT winning the one medal he now wants most.