SOUTH Africa’s two canoe sprint stars, Hamish Lovemore and Esti Olivier, did everything expected of them at the South African Championships last weekend and successfully began their long journey to Los Angeles 2028.
World Cup silver medalist Lovemore spent only Friday and Saturday at the three-day championships held at Roodeplaat Dam, but was relatively unchallenged as he collected three wins in his three K1 races – 1000m, 500m and 5000m – and teamed up with Denmark’s Jonathan Dagnaes to win the K2 500m.
Lovemore headed to a training camp in Spain on Saturday night, and on the flight to Europe, would not have lost any sleep worrying over his form.
He was almost five seconds clear of Dagnaes in the 1000m event, and the race he hopes to be taking part in at LA28, and thus the focus on his training for the next two years.
Add in a convincing win in the 500m and 5000m events and it looks as if his early-season form is on track.
Olivier will also have left the green waters of Roodeplaat wearing a satisfied smile. Convincing wins in the 500m and 200m K1 races, and even bigger wins in the corresponding K2 races with young Alexa Godden, also point to a training programme that is on track for the experienced 33-year-old Olympian.
The pair can now contemplate their first European events of the year with some confidence, but will be well aware that the standard in the World Cup races in Hungary and Germany will be a significant step up, and four- and five-second wins will not be likely.
While most of the focus was understandably on the two Olympic hopefuls, another paddler who will have been happy with two senior gold medals will be former Olympic medalist Bridgitte Hartley, who claimed wins in the 5000m and 1000m – the two K1 events Olivier did not paddle.
The championships were the designated trial events for teams to compete in three international regattas: The senior World Championships in Poland in August, the junior and U23 World Championships in Canada in July, and September’s Olympic Dreams regatta in Slovakia which is designed to give young, future stars international experience. The teams for those events will be announced shortly.
-Supplied
