Rugby player turned canoeist wins gold
NORTH RIDING – Graham Paull says that you should never give up.
When he was younger, Graham Paull (27) would never have thought he would be winning gold medals in canoeing. The North Riding resident followed his passion for rugby to the point where he was about to play in the Vodacom Rugby Cup 2013 for the Limpopo Blue Bulls. But a spinal infection called transverse myelitis caused him to be paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.
He took up canoeing at the Dabulamanzi Canoe Club at Emmarentia Dam, and nine months later competed in the Gauteng Canoe Union Sprint Championships at Roodeplaat Dam on 29 March. To his surprise, he won the gold medal in the para-canoe event, due to coming first place in the 200m and 500m para-canoe races. “It was not difficult,” Paull said, sounding surprised himself.
“I was just really nervous.” The most difficult part of the championships for Paull, was that other canoeists generated tall waves. These apparently made it difficult for him to paddle straight, and even stay afloat. Paull added that one cannot give up after a career-ending misfortune. “There is only one way and it is to get up and keep going,” he concluded. Paull was afterwards selected for the para-canoeing Gauteng team, to participate in the South Africa Sprint Championships at Roodeplaat Dam over the Easter weekend.
Details: Dabulamanzi Canoe Club info@dabulamanzi.co.za, 011 486 0979.
