The best paddlers at provincial and national level were recently part of two important competitions, which were held shortly after each other at the Roodeplaat Dam in the north-east of Pretoria.

Firstly, the Gauteng Sprint Championships were hosted by the Gauteng Canoe Union at this dam, while the South African Sprint Championships were also held on the waters of the Roodeplaat dam shortly afterwards.

The Gauteng Sprint Championships took place in very grey overcast drizzly weather, but the paddlers seemed to enjoy the damp. This championships enabled the provincial management to identify a team to represent the province at the subsequent national championships.

A large number of paddlers from the local Gauteng canoe clubs – both male and female from all ages – participated in the event. The competition also included races over various distances such as 200m, 500m, 1000m and 5000m. 

Some highly experienced paddlers were in action, while others enjoyed their first races. 

One of the more familiar faces at the event was Pretoria’s Olympic paddler, Esti Olivier, the coach of the Academy of Canoe Development (ACD), which is based at Roodeplaat.

Some of the paddlers that are training at the academy are potential champions that look forward to achieving big things in the sprint arena in various age groups.

Among them were promising paddlers such as Axilia Mabhekete (girls u.12), Kaelo Motene (girls u.14), Lisa Moolman (girls u.16), Emily Langley (girls u.18) as well as u.23 males Christiaan Adendorff, Henk Smith, Deon Hopley and Gareth Barberton.

Several of these students in Olivier’s academy managed to win medals at the provincial championship.

– The South African Sprint Championships took place two weeks later and attracted several big names in the sport.

Sprints are the Olympic discipline of Paddle Sport and a very highly respected aspect of this popular sports code.

The competition began with 1000m sprints on day one, after which the 500m sprints and the 200m sprints were completed on the following two days and participants from throughout South Africa raced in all age groups from u.8 through to over 50.

Meanwhile, there was also a 5000m sprint on day two for the tougher participants who wanted to take on the longer distance.

South Africa’s two canoe sprint stars, Hamish Lovemore from the Ballito (KZN) and Esti Olivier (Gauteng), did everything expected of them at the South African Championships at the weekend and successfully began their long journey to Los Angeles 2028.

World Cup silver medallist Lovemore spent only two days at the three-day championships, but was relatively unchallenged as he collected three wins in his three K1 races (500m, 1000, and 5000m) and also teamed up with Denmark’s Jonathan Dagnaes to win the K2 race over 500m.

While most of the focus was understandably on the two Olympic hopefuls, another paddler who will have been happy with two senior gold medals will be former Olympic medallist Bridgitte Hartley, who claimed wins in the 5000m and 1000m. This were the two K1 events Olivier did not paddle.

A number of the community youth based in the area, who are part of Olivier’s academy, participated in the event achieving top five positions in various heats over the three days. This was a great opportunity exposing them to racing in the Olympic standards for their future.

– The marathon canoe race for team selection to represent the Gauteng Canoe Union at the upcoming SA marathon championships will take place at Rietvlei Dam in Centurion on 23 May.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram