Canoe Polo Africa Champs debuts in Joburg
Following these championships several national canoe polo players qualified for the 2024 International Canoe Federation's Canoe Polo World Championships.
The fifth Canoe Polo African Championships were recently hosted at Dabulamanzi Canoe Club.
The championships were divided into four divisions – the open division, women and juniors, African champs men and African champs U21 men. By the end of the three-day competition, all four of our national teams – men and U21 men, women and U21 women – qualified for the 2024 International Canoe Federation’s Canoe Polo World Championships set to take place in Huzhou, China, in October.
This was the first time Johannesburg was host to this hotly anticipated event that had 86 participants who made up the 12 teams that competed across varying divisions.
Eighteen paddlers from Namibia participated, and, of the 68 South African paddlers, 33 of them came from Gauteng, 13 from KZN, 14 from Eastern Cape while eight were from the Western Cape.
National head coach and national men’s team coach Clive Whitton said the South African men’s team faced a very motivated Namibian team in their first championship game. “This caught us off guard and we very quickly found ourselves chasing a three-goal deficit. We managed to fight back and end that game in a 4–4 draw but a lot of credit must go to the Namibians for the fight they brought to that first game.”
However, they managed to secure comfortable wins in the remaining two games to secure the 2024 World Championships qualification spot.
The South African U21 men, however, were described as having been too good for the Namibian U21 men but posed a real threat to the Namibian men – having two games where the Namibians only managed to secure their wins in the last few minutes of each game. “The young South African U21 team, comprising mostly of players younger than 18 years, proved that South African men’s canoe polo has got a lot of strength coming up through the ranks,” said Whitton.
Jade Starr, captain of the women’s team, said the SA women had no other female opposition so they found themselves in division one, made up of the top men’s and U21 men’s teams from both South Africa and Namibia. “They faired very well and even managed to place ahead of the U21 Namibian men’s team in the overall tournament results,” she said.
“This is testament to the tenacity that the ladies have shown over the last few months of training as well as the invaluable addition of their newly appointed coach.”
Starr added that there is a newly sparked motivation within the ladies’ squad across the country and they are excited to showcase their skills in the upcoming Canoe Polo World Championships next year.
Karl Jacobie, team manager and player of the Namibian men’s team said their journey from Windhoek to Emmarentia was arduous. Along the way, their trailer, carrying all their canoes got unhooked, making them miss their Friday 08:00 training session. In addition to this, they found that of the 20 boats they came with, five had been badly damaged while a few were not fit for use. “We fixed some boats and managed to have a quick evening training session,” he said.
Jacobie said even with little sleep, his team managed to give their best. “In our first qualifying game with SA men we drew 4–4 and had a lead of 3–0 halfway. So we were really playing well.”
All in all, the African Champs, according to Whitton, was a very successful event for national teams and South African Canoe Polo. “We have got an amazing pool of volunteers that stepped in and took on the many roles required to run such an event. As a result, our athletes could focus on the challenges they had and be able to give their best performances when they needed to.”
Related article:
