Last week we as the SA canoeing team set off to compete in the 2011 All Africa Games being held in Chidenguele Mozambique. Having never been to Mozambique before but heard so much about the place I was really excited for what lay ahead. After arriving in Maputo we spent a few hours at the athlete’s village where all the other sports events are being held. The organizers had built brand new stadiums with state of the art equipment and a bunch of flats for everyone to stay in. It all stuck out like a sore thumb as everything else around was pretty run down and not well looked after since the closing of the war. Unfortunately the canoeing was being held 300km out of Maputo in a town called Chidenguele so we were unable to watch any of the other sports compete. I say unfortunately but in actual fact it was amazing. We were staying in a resort right on the Nhambabale Lake with excellent accommodation and great restaurant facilities. We were only 3km from the beach so on our off days we would go spend a bit of time playing in the waves and soaking up the sun.
Race day – Having expected the worst with rumors going round that the course hadn’t arrived, that there were not enough boats, we were quite pleasantly surprised to see a perfectly straight 1000m course and boat racks full of the worlds leading boat manufacturer’s boats made by Nelo. The racing started off well with Bridgett Hartley winning the 500m K1 and K2 with Tiffany Kruger. She then went on to win the 200m K1 event as well, making it a triple Gold. Nick Stubbs had the hardest race of the games having finished second to Tunisia. Calvin Makoto then went off to win the C1 1000m in great style and followed it up by silver in the 200m C1. After having been sick for a week already I had saved just enough energy to make sure I would make it on to the water for racing. Myself and PW Basson went on to win the 1000m K2 after making it straight through our heat to the finals. The 200m speedster Greg Louw went on to win the 200m K1 event with Shaun Rubenstein and Mike Arthur also winning the K2 200m. Of a possible 11 Medals the SA team won 7 Golds and 2 Silvers.
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