Thursday, 23 September 2010 12:27
South Africa's best after medal bounty in Spain
This week, the 1992 Olympic canoe venue in Banyoles, Spain, plays host to the top Marathon paddlers in the world - hosting the 2010 ICF Canoe Marathon Masters World Cup, as well as the 2010 ICF World Canoe Marathon Championships.
The Masters World Cup kicked off the racing yesterday, with the South African team netting a total of seven medals, setting the standard very high for their younger counterparts.
Out of this impressive medal haul, came golds from Herve De Rauville (70 plus), Roelof van Riet (60-64), Hilda Lapere (50-54) and Mary Beth Burton (55-59), a Silver medal from Antje Manfroni with a silver medal in the Ladies 35-39 category, and Bronze medals from TC Smit (Men’s 50-54) and Anna Clifford Arwidi (Ladies 40-44).
Tomorrow sees the start of the 2010 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, and with strong South African team including past medallists and champions, such as Ant Stott, Michele Eray, Grant van der Walt, Brandon van der Walt, as well as new up and coming talent, Team South Africa are sure to hold their own against the strong international field.
Grant van der Walt, who already has two gold and one silver medal to his name, will hope to defend his 2009 U/23 title tomorrow.
“I’m feeling confident about my preparation. It is going to be a different experience this year, because I am going to be more the target than the unknown as I try to defend my 2009 title”
Michele Eray, who will be competing alongside Bridgitte Hartley in the Senior Women’s’ K1 event on Saturday, has been in Banyoles for a few days preparing for the event, and is excited to paddle on such a historic course.
“The course is great, a stunning light blue colour with the Pyrenees in the background. I feel privileged to paddler here where the greats raced their hearts out in the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.”
Ant Stott and Graeme Solomon will be one of the pairs taking on the K2 Senior men’s race on Sunday. Stott, who raced to Gold with Cam Schoeman in 2008, and Silver with Shaun Rubenstein in 2009, is confident about the combination with Solomon.
“We have spent a lot of time training together and are going nicely. It was a good idea for Graeme and I to go and compete together in Spain as we have already raced the top crews this year, and know where we stand.”
The last minute inclusion of National Sprint team members, Len Jenkins and Bridgitte Hartley into the team has sparked some debate in the canoeing fraternity. CSA General Manager, Graham Bird, issued the following statement on the situation:
“Over the past year CSA embarked on a comprehensive NLDTF (Lotto) funded High Performance program. After various trials, CSA contracted certain athletes to form part the CSA Residential Squad whose aims are full time sprint training towards the Olympic Qualification events in 2011 and finally the Olympic games in 2012. As part of the build up to the World Sprint Championships held in August 2010, the CSA residential athletes were not permitted to compete in the CSA Marathon trials held in June.”
“Due to the withdrawal of Hank McGregor from the SA Marathon team and the vacancy in Women’s K1 slot, the CSA Board made the decision to allow Len Jenkins and Bridgitte Hartley, whom both are part of the CSA Residential squad, to take the empty slots to compete for CSA at the upcoming World Marathon championships. As this is in the rest period after the World Sprint Champs, it allows a great opportunity for the athletes to compete at a high level while taking time out from the rigorous sprint training.”
The Junior and U/23 racing kicks off tomorrow with the Junior boys at 9:30am, the Junior girls at 9:33am, the U/23 Women at 11:45am and the U/23 Men at 14:45pm. The Senior K1, Junior K2, and Senior C1 classes will race on Saturday, while the Senior K2 events finish off the competition on Sunday.
For more information and up to date results and race schedules, please visit www.banyoles.cat.
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