Gold for McCann at World Championships
By winning a gold medal at the world championships last week, Pretoria’s Kirsten McCann proved to every female rower in South Africa that nothing is impossible if you are prepared to put your mind to it.
Showing the world that South African sportswomen can be fast, furious and fabulous is what Kirsten McCann wrote on her Twitter profile.
She certainly did not just type those words in a moment of boredom. McCann is fulfilling it. She proved it last week when she became South Africa’s first female rower to win a world title at senior World Championships.
The Tuks/HPC-rower won the lightweight women’s single sculls-race in Sarasota, Florida by out rowing Marieke Keijser from the Netherlands to win by a boat length. Mary Jones (USA) was third nearly another second adrift.
The ever-modest McCann tend to shy away when asked to describe her feelings after a successful race and last week in America was no exception.
“I had an ideal race plan. I knew the last 250m it would be real tight. So I am happy to have been able to sprint so effectively. It’s cool,” was her only comment afterwards.
Earlier this year McCann set another benchmark when she won the lightweight single sculls-race in Lucerne. It was the first time a South African female rower won a World Cup-race.
In fact, the new superstar has a perfect record when it comes to racing at World Championships and World Cups. Since 2015 she has medalled each time she competed.
“The absolute perfectionist would be a good way to describe Kirsten. Giving less than a 100% during any training session would never is an option for her. I don’t think Kirsten has missed a training session in the last two years. So I will be honest. I was not at all surprised seeing Kirsten win the gold medal at the world championships,” said Nicole van Wyk, McCann’s training partner at Tuks/HPC.
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