WITH the move to an adjusted level 4 lockdown, in response to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic’s third wave, Canoeing South Africa has suspended all of its events until Sunday, 11 July.
Canoeing South Africa said it views canoeing events as gatherings which saw the body suspend events for two weeks.
The main event that was moved is the Berg River Canoe Marathon, which was meant to be held from next Wednesday.
Canoeing South Africa’s president, Kim Pople pleaded to all paddlers to adhere to the new restrictions that have been put into place.
“With the ban on gatherings at beaches and dams, it means that dices and large training groups cannot go ahead,” Pople said.
“We can still go outdoors and paddle but, with the government’s definition of gatherings, we cannot host events or club activities. Let’s all play our part in the next two weeks.”
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Pople stressed that paddlers are still allowed to train, but they needed to be responsible and use the same protocol used in 2020 when they were given the green light to paddle after the first hard lockdown.
“It’s two weeks for us and then we will wait and see what the government says. We do ask paddlers that do come out to: arrive, train and depart as we did a year ago,” she added.
Given the potential severity of this third wave of infections Pople believes this suspension won’t be a protracted one.
“From our discussions, events will go ahead from August and September as per normal. We may be limited in terms of batch sizes but, luckily, we can work around that. With the Cape racing season taking place now with the winter rains, we will keep an eye out on what is happening down there. We won’t be sitting around for the next two weeks. We will be proactive with government and plot and plan the next six to eight weeks of our event calendar,” Pople said.
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