Team South Africa ended the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Gyor, Hungary, with two silver and two bronze medals shared by the experienced old hands as well as some exciting new talent.
With South Africa’s new rising star, Hamish Lovemore, forced out of the competition due to illness, Andy Birkett stepped up in the men’s K1 race and claimed his fourth silver medal in that event and his ninth championship medal overall.
However, the star of the regatta for South Africa was surely junior Keegan Vogt who returns from Hungary with two medals from his K1 and K2 races, while Jade Wilson completed the tally for South Africa with a bronze from her U23 K1 race.
With Lovemore’s absence, Nic Notten lined up alongside Birkett in the 29km K1 race on Saturday evening, and nearly gave South Africa a surprise double medal.
With Denmark’s Mads Pedersen dominating the race and paddling away from the rest of the field early on, the battle was always for the bottom steps of the podium. Notten was dropped from the chasers on the first lap, but remarkably fought back and was part of a four-man group coming to the final portage.
Birkett used all his experience to lead into the final run and when he put in he had virtually wrapped up the silver medal, but there was carnage behind him. First Frenchman Jeremy Candy slipped and half-filled his boat with water, and then Notten wasted all his hard work getting back into contention by falling out as he stepped into his boat. That allowed Hungarian Csanad Sellei to cruise home for third.
The fifth position was cruel reward for a brave paddle from Notten, who was scheduled to only paddle the K2 race with Clint Cook on Sunday but stepped up when Lovemore was forced to pull out.
For Birkett, the result is his sixth medal from the K1 race at the World Championships and goes with two golds he won in 2018 and 2022 and three silvers, as well as a gold and two bronze from the K2 race in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
At the other end of the scale of experience, 12 months ago Keegan Vogt was bitterly disappointed to have missed out on a medal in his first championships when he was part of a two-man break in the junior event, but faded to finish fourth. This year the Maritzburg College pupil made up for that disappointment as he raced to a silver medal in the K1 race, and then partnered Ryley Smith to third place in the K2 event.
In the K1 race, Vogt and teammate Cody Stallard formed half the four-man lead group, along with Ireland’s Sean Butterly and neutral athlete Ivan Nekrasov. Unlike in the equivalent race a year ago, Vogt was able to pressurise his rivals but was just unable to get the better of the Irishman and had to settle for second, with Nekrasov claiming the third medal and leaving Stallard just off the podium.
In the junior K2 race, Vogt and Smith were part of a three-man group coming into the last portage about 500m from the finish, but they just did not have the speed after the run and had to settle for third.
Earlier in the week, East London’s Jade Wilson gave South Africa its first medal when she finished third in the women’s U23 K1 event, with Saskia Hockly finishing fifth.
In the women’s K2 race on Sunday, Wilson just missed out on a second medal when she stepped up to the senior category and partnered Jenna Nisbett to fourth, with Hockly and Pippa McGregor ending one place further back.
South Africa’s four medals meant they ended 11th on the medal table, but will be left wondering if Lovemore could have added another two medals to that tally.
