Hamish Lovemore further underlined his status as one of the world’s best paddlers after winning silver in the K1 long distance final at The World Games in Chengdu, China, writes Mark Lemke.
His performance has doubled his and Team SA’s medal tally, proving that he is one of the biggest sporting talents in South Africa as we head towards the next Olympics in Los Angeles in three years time.
This final has a similar story to Saturday’s short distance race. The 25-year-old, who came second in that 3.4km event, and the Danish Mads Pedersen, who finished first, pulled away from the rest early in Sunday’s showdown. The pair were within touching distance of each other for much of the 21km. It was too close to call before the final 200m, from where Pedersen began to pull away as they sprinted for the line.
When they crossed the line for the final time, they settled their canoes side by side and shared a friendly moment of respect and acknowledgement. Saturday had shown the gap in class between them and the rest but Sunday affirmed that the disparity was no one-off. The South African finished in 1hr 35min 39.17sec which was 46 seconds ahead of the third-placed boat. His performance brings overwhelming excitement for what his future holds.
When the LA Olympics takes place in 2028, Lovemore will be the age Pedersen is now. It is easy to imagine the huge success that his future holds, however, imagining a limit on the extent to that success is close to impossible. He is already one of South Africa’s finest athletes and is hurtling towards being the world’s best K! canoeist.
