SA teen reflects on winning junior World Ocean Paddling title
Outeniqua Gr 12 learner Ellen Strydom reflects on her and her doubles partner's world title win in Durban and the demanding conditions that shaped her performances.
Ellen Strydom (18), a matric learner at Hoërskool Outeniqua and member of the Outeniqua Canoe Club, recently took top honours and claimed the World Ocean Paddling junior title with her doubles partner, Ryley Smith (18) from Cape Town.
According to George Herald, the International Canoe Federation’s annual Ocean Paddling World Championship took place in Durban from October 17 to 19.
More than 550 paddlers from 32 countries competed in the event, navigating the KZN coastline over two days in both a mixed doubles category and an individual singles category.
Mixed doubles challenge
The first day of racing in the three-day race window was the mixed doubles category from the Durban UnderSea Club to Amanzimtoti, over a distance of 29.8km.
Rough sea conditions with big swells made for technical and exhilarating racing. Ellen and Ryley had their work cut out as teams from Spain, Portugal and Australia, among others, went all out.
“The start was absolutely crazy with so many paddlers and extremely testing conditions and big waves breaking. Ryley managed to find a good line to get us through unscathed and we settled into the race from there,” said Ellen.
“With about 5km to go, we were a group of four crews, with teams of Spain, Portugal and France pushing hard. We decided to put the hammer down and went all out.
“Again Ryley steered us through massive surf to the finish. It was such a surreal feeling – words cannot really describe it.”
Ellen and her partner claimed the gold medal and world champion honours over the distance, edging out the team from Spain.
Individual event
October 19 was the big day for the individual event. The course covered 33km from the Durban UnderSea Club to Ballito on the North Coast. The conditions were considerably calmer, setting the stage for a gruelling distance race.
“The conditions were not really favouring us in the sense that we prefer the windy and bigger sea conditions that make for exhilarating and adrenaline-filled runs in which we can reach speeds of up to 25km/h,” said Ellen.
“This also helps, especially over a longer distance like this course of 33km. However, we anticipated this kind of scenario, so we focused our training on the worst possible conditions and hoped for the best, most favourable ones.”
After a ding-dong battle over the 33km course between Ellen and Colmaro Jiminez of Spain, Colmaro managed to beat Ellen to the finish by a mere 16 seconds.
“I chose a deeper line about 2km offshore where there was a bit more current that helped quite a lot.
“Having raced the previous day in the mixed doubles category meant I had to conserve energy and race smart over the distance. I knew it was going to be hard racing back to back, but I am absolutely ecstatic with the silver. Colmaro Jiminez was just too strong on the day, but it was close.”
Upcoming world event
Ellen has also been chosen to represent South Africa in surf lifesaving and will compete at the World Lifesaving Championship in New Zealand from November 27 to November 30.
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