Canoeing SA encouraged by marathon results

Canoeing South Africa expressed its happiness with the performances of Team SA after they returned with four bronze medals from the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Pitesti, Romania.

Women paddlers lead the way for Team South Africa and accounted for three of the four medals won by the team.

Mount Moreland resident, Saskia Hockly won the bronze in the junior women’s K1 and then won bronze with Mount Edgecombe resident, Jenna Nisbet in the senior women’s K2.

Christie Mackenzie won bronze in the U23 women’s K1 race, while Uli Hart also won a bronze in the U23 men’s K1 race.

“To secure four bronze medals in our first international event since 2019 is a fantastic effort,” said Canoeing South Africa president, Kim Pople. “We are really happy with how things went and are really happy with the team, the coaches and the support crews. We got a few fourth places as well and there are a number of massive take-aways from the event that are encouraging for us going forward.”

“We’ve seen how Hungary and Denmark have upped their game in the senior men’s and U23 categories, but we have a lot to look forward to and to challenge us going forward to Portugal next year. Our women’s side really led the way for us and that was incredibly exciting. We have a CSA strategic planning board meeting coming up across all disciplines, so it’s going to be interesting to see the discipline committee chairperson’s feedback and their plans going forward,” she said.

South African canoeing had a busy European summer season and all of the international competitions can only bode well going forward.

“It was a big year for us, with eight international tours with six in the last six weeks. As Canoeing South Africa, we are really happy that we got to tour this year and a huge thanks to the tour managers and administrators behind the scenes. We look forward to more exciting competition in 2022,” Pople said.