Vichy – The South African sprint kayak team left the weekend’s first ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup with a silver medal and invaluable experience against the world’s fastest sprint paddlers.
 
National Women’s Champion Bridgitte Hartley was the squad’s standout performer, qualifying for A-Finals in all three distances she entered, and scooping the team’s only medal for her second place in the 1000m K1. 
 

Bridgitte Hartley capped a successful weekend at the season-opening ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup by winning silver in the Women’s 1000m K1. ©Vichy

Having cruised through her Friday heat to qualify automatically for the Final on Saturday morning, she relied on her powerful kick after the halfway mark to surge up the field from fifth to second, only a second behind the Polish gold medalist Beata Mikolajczyk.
 
Less than an hour later Hartley was back on the start line for the 500m K1 final, where she recovered from a difficult start to place fifth overall in a race won by multiple World Champion Katrin Wagner-Augustin. Her final race in the 200m final on Sunday afternoon saw the Sandton-born star finish in seventh overall.
 
The other woman in the squad, Jen Hodson, had a solid return to the international fold, qualifying for the B-Final in both Women’s Olympic distance events, the 500m and 200m. She finished third in the 500m B-Final and fourth in the 200m - where she had beaten Hartley at last month’s SA Champs.
 
Canoeing South Africa’s top crew boat of Cape-based athletes Shaun Rubenstein and Mike Arthur will also be pleased with their performances, which included a 500m personal best time in their K2 semi-final. They had a tougher time in the Final against strong European crews, crossing in eighth.
 
However the pair will be most encouraged by their showings in the new Olympic distance 200m event, where they won both their heat and semi-final. Again the European boats were too strong, but a narrow fourth place behind fast French, Danish and Spanish crews will give them plenty of motivation for the second World Cup at the end of the month.
 
There were two other B-Finals in the squad, with Nick Stubbs carrying his good form through to second place in the K1 500m, and Eastern-Cape brothers Greg and Ryan Louw placing fourth in the 200m K2 B-Final. Cam Schoeman and Stu Waterworth’s partnership will also have gained heart from their third place finish in the K2 500m C-Final, having suffered exit at the semi-final stage of the 1000m event.
 
Len Jenkins will be slightly disappointed with his weekend having had a good build-up to the regatta. The river and marathon phenomenon failed to progress from his 1000m and 500m heats. Likewise, the younger members of the squad failed to qualify for any Finals, although many of them are racing at senior international level for the first time and are on a steep learning curve.
 
The squad now has three weeks to prepare for the second ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged, Hungary from 28th to 30th May. They are missing the third and final World Cup to return to South Africa for optimal conditioning ahead of the Sprint World Championships.

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