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South Africa’s Hamish Lovemore came within a whisker of pulling off a sensational win in the men’s K1 1000m final at the International Canoe Federation Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged, Hungary.
It was a top-class field that featured six of the eight Olympic finalists, including Paris 2024 gold medallist Josef Dostal of Czechia, but Lovemore – ninth in Paris – surprised them all and almost emerged victorious, pushing Kopasz all the way. Kopasz, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist, won in 3min 29.65sec, edging Lovemore who took silver in 3:29.82, while a late surge from Dostal saw the Czech seal bronze in 3:32.10.
On Sunday Lovemore was back on the water for the K1 5000m, and here he finished fifth in 22min 09.41sec, which was 40.80 behind gold medallist Jon Amund Vold, of Norway.
“It was a great race for me,” said Kopasz of the 1000m. “I saw the South African racer going very hard but I also went maximum speed in the last 150m so I am very happy to win this race.”
The 23-year-old Lovemore competed in the K1 1000 and K2 500 at the Paris Olympics, where he finished ninth and 12th, respectively. He is a Canoe Marathon world champion from 2022 and has an U23 world bronze medal in Canoe Sprint.
Another Team SA Olympian from Paris 2024, Esti Olivier, placed fifth in the women’s K1 200m semi-finals and missed out on place in the A final. She then went on to place eighth in the B final, in 47.31sec.
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