CSA commits to national champs despite international cancellations

FOLLOWING the cancellation of a number of world championship events by the International Canoe Federation due to the coronavirus pandemic, the administrators at Canoeing South Africa are putting in place plans to ensure that all national championships affected by COVID-19 will have a space in the calendar later in the year.

On Wednesday last week the International Canoeing Federation made the decision to cancel a number of world championship events that have been scheduled for the European summer months, including the Junior and Under 23 Sprint World Championships in Germany in July and the Marathon World Championships in Norway in September, which could have led to the cancellation of our national championships.

President of Canoeing South Africa Kim Pople is confident that once normality resumes then they will be able to nail down dates for the various national championship events that have been affected.

“We are fully committed to running all of our national championship events,” Pople said assuredly. “We obviously don’t know when they will be just yet but we will be able to get a better idea when the lockdown is over. Internationally the ICF have cancelled the Marathon World Championships, the Olympic qualifying event and the Junior and Under 23 Sprint World Championships. The ICF released a statement on Wednesday saying that the Canoe Polo World Championships have been moved to next year, however the Ocean Racing World Championships are still scheduled to take place in September.”

From a local perspective it will be important to make sure that they can open up spots in the calendar to host these national championships later in the year but Pople and Canoeing South Africa have been in contact with race organisers.

“While some events like the Umkomaas Marathon and the Berg are heavily dependent on seasonal water, we have asked races that aren’t water dependent to rather postpone to later in the year.

“Obviously there is going to be a bit of juggling to do with the calendar but we are hopeful that we will get as many races in as possible later in the year.”

Mount Edgecombe paddler, Jenna Ward, has also been affected by the cancellations.

“Unfortunately the world marathon champs set for August in Norway have been cancelled. They are not able to postpone because towards the end of the year, Norway snows up and the lakes ice up so we wouldn’t be able to paddle then. With the cancellation of worlds, our national champs were meant to be held in Cape Town over the long weekend in June (13-15) which would have doubled as our selection for Norway world champs. I would have loved to have raced in Cape Town, but I think that will be postponed and raced at a later stage but not as a selection rather as just a national championship,” she said.

You can also sign up for news alerts on Telegram. Send us a Telegram message (not an SMS) with your name and surname (ONLY) to 060 532 5532.  

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple.