SA Sprint Championships Weekend 5/6 April 2014 – Gautengers Achievements

Well done to the few Gautengers who managed to get down to Natal for the SA Sprint Championships at Nagle dam where Bridgitte Hartley starred as she prepares for the road to Rio de Janeiro in 2016!

Sprints certainly is hard work according to the youth after the GCU champs, and requires dedication and commitment and the ongoing travel requirements for races out of our area with increasing fuel costs and stressed economy does not make it easier to compete.

Esti van Tonder from the Academy at Roodeplaat managed to achieve a 5th position overall in the Senior women, with Tiffany Kruger also relocated to Roodeplaat 6th with 36 and 32 points respectively and they are definitely the hopes for our future lady sprinters in Gauteng, with Esti also achieving 4th overall in the Under 23 ladies.

Martin van den Bergh from JCC and Gabriel van Wyk from the Academy are our hopes for the men, both Under 23, the pair managed to achieve 27.5 and 26 points overall in the various races coming in as 6th and 9th in the Top Ten Under 23 Mens results.

David Rodrigues (Dabs) clocked up 42 points to gain a 5th place overall position in the Under 18 boys, as did Nicole Smith in the Under 18 girls, with 27 points.

The C1 paddlers from Gauteng are also a hope for a future Olympic presence, with Radoslaw Olszewski from ERK still topping the logs, followed by Calvin Mokoto, while there are a swarm of new learner C1 paddlers embarking on their future careers from the Academy, using the school league races to practice their race techniques, while a new name on the log for ERK is Ryan Ball debuting 3rd in most race distances.

The C1 class is the only class where Gauteng dominates so we must hope that the discipline gains ground in Gauteng and leads us to international success….!

Calvin Griffiths (Academy) finished up 17th on points overall, while Eduan Dippenaar from Likkewaan (although registered on the results as ERK) also competed in most races achieving 20th position overall on points in the Under 23 age category!

Well done all!

Jennie Dallas
For GCU PR
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