Club returns from canoe polo champs

Dabulamanzi Canoe Club was host to the splashing welcome of the U21 national canoe polo team who had just come home after they participated in the 2022 ICF Canoe Polo World Championships.

The prestigious event, that took place in France, saw the team place 15th in the world. For their welcome, held on August 28, the team played a friendly game among themselves and later had a braai.

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Canoe polo coach and former SA player, Daniela Afonso, explained the team had been training together for about seven years and this was the first world championship for the U21 team. “They did a great job, it was awesome to watch them.”

He added that the team currently has three U21 players who will still play in this category for the coming championships that will take place in two years.

National canoe polo chairperson, Chris de Bree, loosely described the sport as being a mixture of rugby, canoeing, water polo and basketball. Players wear protective gear such as helmets, and life jackets, and there is padding on the kayaks. Even though it is a semi-contact sport, there are minimal injuries.

When speaking of the national team he said, “We are not as competitive as the European teams and our ranking is the best we have ever had for a junior team and we were just one spot off from automatically qualifying for the next worlds.”

For him, this sport has been a passion of his for years and now he enjoys introducing young kids to the sport that he hopes to grow not only within the community but the country. “We had sent the team to the championships to develop the team and for us, it is exposure overseas. If we can send a team over every year then it really helps develop the sport.”

De Bree said training at Dabulamanzi Canoe Club brings this great exposure to the sport taking into account the amount of foot traffic the club sees. He also shared that as world championships are held every two years, the game plan was to send the junior team, so they could have the experience of competing internationally. The aim now is to build a new batch of U21s.

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There is also a strong focus on getting a women’s team too, “We have a really strong group of ladies here so we really pushing to try to get as many ladies together,” said De Bree. Afonso agreed with De Bree’s sentiments, adding that she would love nothing more than see other women take part in this exhilarating sport.

The team now prepares to take part in the 2023 Canoe Polo Africa Championships which will either be held in Namibia or here in South Africa.

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