Hamish Lovemore once again led the charge for South Africa as he collected a bronze medal and reached a final in the season-opening ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup regatta in Szeged, Hungary over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Header Image: Hamish Lovemore (right) on the podium for the 5 000m alongside Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta (centre) and Denmark’s Mads Pedersen. (ICF \/Gameplan Media)<\/em><\/p>\n Lovemore led the six-person team’s results with a third place in the 5\u00a0000m event that wrapped up competition on Sunday afternoon, after he had earlier reached the final in the Olympic-distance 1\u00a0000m K1 race on Saturday.<\/p>\n The Szeged regatta was the first World Cup to count towards the new ranking system for LA28 qualification, which means Lovemore picked up valuable points in his quest to be return to the Olympic stage in Los Angeles in 2028.<\/p>\n The big winner in the men’s races was 36-year-old Fernando Pimenta, who won the Olympic distance 1\u00a0000m event before outsprinting Denmark superstar Mads Pedersen at the finish of the 5\u00a0000m event after the pair had broken away from Lovemore earlier in the six-lap race.<\/p>\n Lovemore finished ninth in the 1\u00a0000m.<\/p>\n Cape Town’s Uli Hart finished 11th in the 5\u00a0000m event while Esti Olivier ended eighth in the women’s 200m B Final. The only other South African paddler to progress through heats and semi-finals into a final was Nicholas Weeks, who finished seventh in the 200m men’s C Final. Hart and Helen Jansen Van Vuuren were eliminated in the semi-finals of the men’s and women’s 1\u00a0000m respectively, while Jansen van Vuuren ended 24th in the women’s 5\u00a0000m race.<\/p>\n The next World Cup takes place in Brandenburg in Germany from Thursday to Sunday with Lovemore, Olivier, Weeks, Jansen van Vuuren, and Chrisjan Coetzee all taking part once again.<\/p>\n Full SA Paddler Results<\/p>\n K1 Men 5\u00a0000m: Hamish Lovemore \u2013 Final 3rd K1 Men 1\u00a0000m: Lovemore \u2013 Final 9th K1 Women 200m: Esti Olivier \u2013 B Final 8th<\/p>\n K1 Men 200m: Nicholas Weeks \u2013 C Final 7th K1 Women \u00a05000m: Helen Jansen Van Vuuren \u2013 Final 24th<\/p>\n K1 Women 1\u00a0000m: Jansen van Vuuren \u2013 Semi-final 9th<\/p>\n K1 Women 500m: Olivier \u2013 Heats 8th<\/p>\n K1 Men 500m: Weeks \u2013 Heats 7th
\nUli Hart \u2013 Final 11th<\/p>\n
\nHart \u2013 Semi-final 9th<\/p>\n
\nChrisjan Coetzee \u2013 Heats 7th<\/p>\n
\nCoetzee \u2013 Heats 7th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"