This year’s SA Sprint Championships and the SA Schools Sprint Championships were hosted by the KwaZulu-Natal Canoe Union at Roodeplaat, which was nice and convenient for the people from our pond, but not so nice for the people from KZN, as there was mayhem on the N3 during their travels. As in previous years, it was a very busy program. With seventy-eight 1000m races on Friday, eighty-six 500m races on Saturday, and eighty-four 200m races on Sunday, we hope that everyone there thanked Lorna, Kevin, and their team for all they did in organising, timekeeping, and posting of results, with so many races rushing down on them every 5 minutes. Well done, guys!
Well done also to our Coach Adro, who was brimming with pride following the prowess of his High Performance Paddling People – and particularly so for his new generation of youngsters, including Rio, Kayla, Daniel, Luke, and Alexa. Rio and Kayla won every final in their respective age group races – they really were fantastic! Kayla should now have qualified for the Junior World Champs in Portugal, to be held in July. Coach hopes that Daniel has qualified for the Olympic Hopes in Czechia in September, while Alexa should also have qualified for the U23 World Champs, also in Portugal. We wait to see if Luke will also make the cut. Coach Adro also wanted to thank Chad (Chunky) Andrews for all his help over the extended weekend.
The list of podium people from our pond in the A Finals was long across the different age groups and distances, starting with the 1000m, then 500m, and then 200m events:
U12 Girls Guppy 1000m
- 1st: Amile Mzolo
- 3rd: Aara Judy
U18 Girls K1 1000m
- 1st: Kayla Szalay
U18 Girls K2 1000m
- 1st: Kayla Szalay & Emma Privett
The Senior Women’s K1 1000m race was won by Kira Bester with Jade Wilson and Georgia Singe taking the other podium places.
U12 Boys Guppy 1000m
- 1st: Ruoxi Hao
U14 Boys K1 1000m
- 1st: Kyle Armdorf
- 2nd: David Miller
U23 Men’s K1 1000m
- 2nd Luke Salmon
35+ Men’s K1 1000m
- 1st: Matthew Ballenden
- 2nd: Phineas Zulu
- 3rd: Nkosi Mzolo
U14 Boys K2 1000m
- 1st: Kyle Armdorf and David Miller
U16 Boys K2 1000m
- Daniel van Eeden & Josh Worthmann
Snr Men K2 1000m
- 1st: Clint Cook & Jeremy Maher
35+ Men’s K2 1000m
- 1st: Nkosi Mzolo & Matthew Ballenden
- 2nd: Gunther Grune & Richard Cook
- 3rd: Ryno Armdorf & Chad Andrews
The Senior Men’s K1 1000m race was won by Hamish Lovemore with Uli Hart and Andy Birkett taking the other podium places. Hamish now looks be the local man to beat in both sprints and Marathons.
U12 Girls Guppy 500m
- 2nd: Aara Judy
U16 Girls K1 500m
- 2nd: Alexa Primich
U18 Girls K1 500m
- 1st: Kayla Szalay
U23 Women K1 500m
- 2nd: Alexa Godden
The Senior Women’s K1 500m was an all Cape Town affair – won by Christy Shrimpton with Georgia Singe and Kira Bester taking the other podium places.
U12 Boys Guppy 500m
- 1st: Ruoxi Hao
U14 Boys K1 500m
- 1st: Kyle Armdorf
U16 Boys K1 500m
- 3rd: Daniel van Eeden
U23 Men’s K1 500m
- 2nd Luke Salmon
35+ Men’s K1 500m
- 1st: Nkosi Mzolo
- 2nd: Phineas Zulu
- 3rd: Matthew Ballenden
35+ Men’s K2 500m
- 1st: Nkosi Mzolo & Matthew Ballenden
- 2nd: Ryno Armdorf & Chad Andrews
- 3rd: Phineas Zulu & Sean Privett
Snr Men K2 1000m
- 2nd: Clint Cook & Uli Hart
The Senior Men’s K1 500m event was won by Hamish Lovemore followed by Uli Hart and then Henry van der Walt (who is a big man.)
U12 Girls Guppy 200m
- 3rd: Aara Judy
U12 Girls K1 200m
- 2nd: Permission Blaai
- 3rd: Aara Judy
U12 Girls K2 200m
- 2nd: Aara Judy & Amile Mzolo
- 3rd: Permission Blaai & Siphokazi Lilane
U14 Girls K2 200m
- 3rd: Siphesihle Radebe & Soyama Lilane
U18 Girls K1 200m
- 1st: Kayla Szalay
U18 Girls K2 200m
- 1st: Kayla Szalay & Emma Privett
The Senior Women K1 200m Final was won by Esti Oliver followed by Tiffany Koch and Alexa Godden was third, and with this Alexa also won the U23 category.
U8 Boys Guppy 200m
- 1st: Aayan Judy
U12 Boys Guppy 200m
- 1st: Ruoxi Hao
U14 Boys K1 200m
- 3rd: David Miller
U14 Boys K1 200m
- 3rd: Daniel van Eeden
U16 Boys K1 200m
- 1st: Kyle Armdorf
- 2nd: David Miller
35+ Men’s K1 200m
- 1st: Nkosi Mzolo
- 2nd: Ryno Armdorf
35+ Men’s K2 200m
- 1st: Ryno Armdorf & Chad Andrews
- 2nd: Nkosi Mzolo & Matthew Ballenden
The Senior Men K1 200m was won by Henry van der Walt followed by David Gerber and then Uli Hart, and in the quickest race of the weekend, the Senior Men K2 200m sprint was won in 35seconds by Henry van der Walt & David Gerber who just edged out Uli Hart Clint Cook.
Well done to all involved for pulling this mammoth event off, but as our reporters noted last year, we don’t do well in promoting our sport. Before, during or after. If not on the Sprints WhatsApp group, then the program and results were impossible to find. While SuperSport filmed the 3 days, few were aware of this, and perhaps that was a good thing, because with no commentary it was dead boring and a poor ad for our sport. Rather sad; canoeing needs as much support and airtime as it can get and despite all the hard work that done, we are still failing ourselves here. Also as Richard Cook said, Sprints aren’t just for the Nelo brigade; he had lots of fun there and wished that more everyday ordinary paddlers would also support sprints.
Maybe you will be there next year?
Also on Sunday, 5 sluice gates had been opened at the Vaal dam and the river was running at over 1300cums so Parys locals Hugh and Gideon along with some Jo’burg boys, Adriaan, John and Tony went to play in their plastics at Theatre and Gatsien, and they had a whole lot of fun. We are also missing out in not doing more of this. In his day Meyer Steyn would have organised a trip, so now it’s over to the likes of Chunky, – but he was busy camping out at Roodeplaat, and carbo-loading all alone – and yes, he really did win a Gold Medal, well done Chad & Ryno!
It’s the Short Course Marathon at Dabs this Thursday, so if you want to paddle you need to enter the race. And then it’s the HASSC on Saturday – the sun should be back by then and we hope to see you all there.
Till next time – go Dabs!