Saskia Hockly opened the Team South Africa medal account at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships on Thursday by winning her second successive Junior Women’s K1 bronze medal.
The Durban-based teenager repeated her performance of 12 months ago in Romania when she finished third behind the Hungarians Kata Horvath and Zsofia Szerafin.
“I think it was one of the toughest races of my life,” Hockly said. “I was just getting messed around by those girls and I think the weed also played a big part, getting stuck everywhere – on my nose, on my rudder – it was hard.”
The portage proved to be difficult for many of the paddlers and for Hockly it wasn’t the condition of the portage, it was getting momentum that was hard.
“It wasn’t that I was struggling on the sand; it was that my pumps weren’t working so I had to empty my boat at the start of every portage. Then trying to get going on the sand after that is quite tough,” she said.
Hockly managed to get herself ahead of Sweden’s Ella Richter on the final portage which guaranteed her the bronze medal ahead of Great Britain’s Greta Roeser.
Earlier in the day Jenna Nisbet turned out in a stacked first heat in the women’s Short Course that included the likes of Vanda Kiszli and Cathrine Rask.
Nisbet ended seventh in her heat to secure her place in the final, while in the second heat Nikki Birkett finished in third to book herself a spot in the final. In that final Birkett finished eighth, with Nisbet ninth.
In the men’s Short Course heats Uli Hart finished seventh in his heat and McGregor finished fourth in his heat, both reaching the final
The final was dominated by local Fernando Pimenta, who used his sprint speed on his home waters to clinch a popular gold for Portugal from Dane Mads Pedersen.
McGregor edged into third on the final turn but was shaded by Spaniard Ivan Alonso in the final dice to the line to finish fourth.
Photo: Jason Ward/Gameplan Media