Ominous signs from World Champs star ahead of Fish
Mount Edgecombe's Jenna Ward will go into the showdown as the favourite following her impressive showing at the World Championships.
ANOTHER strong performance from Team South Africa at the recent Canoe Marathon World Championships gives an indication of which of the nation’s paddlers are in the best form heading into the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon from 5 to 6 October.
From a senior ladies perspective, with the absence of Abby Solms, Mount Edgecombe’s Jenna Ward must go into the showdown as the favourite following her impressive showing at the World Championships.
Ward, in her first senior women’s world championships, paddled with determination to finish the K1 race in seventh place overall.
Ward’s nearest rival and 2016’s runner up is her Euro Steel team mate Bridgitte Hartley. Hartley didn’t quite have the World Championships that she was hoping for and finished the race in 12th place but she will be a contender following the vast improvement in her river skills.
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The next generation of paddlers that will be out to impress in the ladies race will be the under 23 duo of Christie Mackenzie and Sabina Lawrie. Both have completed three Hansa Fish’s and will be hoping to upset the older, more fancied pair.
Mackenzie, who finished ninth in the U23 women’s race in Portugal last week, has proved that she is a river racing star after claiming two consecutive silver medals at the FNB Dusi. She finished second in a K1 in 2017 and then followed that up with a silver in a K2 this year.
Lawrie, who came ninth in the U23 women’s race over one minute 20 seconds ahead of Mackenzie, is more at home in a surfski but will still be one to watch in Cradock this year.
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