SA bag medals at canoe champs

SOUTH Africa and Tunisia bagged the lion's share of the medals on the final day of the ICF Canoe Sprint African Championships at a rainy Shongweni Dam on Sunday, bringing down the curtain on a highly successful continental titles decider and Rio Olympic Games qualifier event.

South Africa grabbed gold in every event the team entered, but with their athletes not eligible for continental Olympic qualification, much attention was focused on the second place on the podium in those key 200m Olympic K1 and K2 qualifiers.

As they did on the second day of the champs, Tunisia showed their experience and class as they swooped on the bulk of the Olympic berths, led by their London Olympian Mohammed Ali Mrabet and strong female paddler Afef Ben Ismail.

Tunisia made it a clean sweep of the Olympic berths on offer by winning both individual C boat class finals, with Khaled Houssine taking the men's C1 African title and berth in the Rio showcase, while Nedra Trabelsi took the women's equivalent.

London Olympic medallist Bridgitte Hartley used the event as part of her build-up to the Rio Games, and showed unflappable glimpses of her impressive current form as she added a trio of continental sprint titles to her CV.

With a record number of African countries taking part, it was heartening to see the emergence of seriously competitive talent from nations such as Sao Tome and Principe, Mozambique challenging the more established nations like Tunisia, Nigeria, Senegal, Cote d'Iviore and Egypt.

Full results are available at www.,africanchamps.co.za