Canoe polo player competes in France

Farrarmere resident Nicholas Weeks (21) is, this week, representing South Africa at the 2014 International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Polo World Championships, in France.

The championships are held from Monday, September 22, to Friday, September 26, in Thury-Harcourt, Normandy.

The former Benoni High School pupil is a member of the South African u-21 canoe polo team who will take on some of the best players in this rather unique sport.

Weeks is a member of the Ekurhuleni Kayak Club (ERK), but spends the majority of his time practising the sport at Dabulamanzi Canoe Club, at Emmerentia Dam.

The sport of canoe polo combines canoeing and ball-handling skills with an exciting contact team game, where tactics and positional play are as important as the speed and fitness of the individual athletes.

The game requires excellent teamwork and promotes both general canoeing skills and a range of other techniques unique to the sport.

Each team has five players on the pitch, who compete to score in their opponent’s goal, suspended 2m above the water.

The ball can be thrown by hand, or flicked with the paddle to pass between players and shot at the goal.

Weeks, who also takes part in canoe marathons, said that being selected to represent South Africa at the championships is a proud moment and a really exciting challenge.

“Canoe polo requires a lot of strength and explosive power, as opposed to marathons,” he told the City Times shortly before jetting off to Belgium, on Friday, September 19, where the South African team played in a pre-World Championships event over the weekend.

The Benonian, who is a student at Wits University, has been playing the sport for five years and first got into it during his days as a Benoni Sea Scout (he is now an active Benoni Sea Scout Rover).

“As a youngster I always admired the older guys who were representing the country, so, to be a part of this team is really important to me,” he said.