2ND AFRICA CHAMPS SLALOM
FISH RIVER
CRADOCK, SOUTH AFRICA
30 SEPTEMBER AND 1 OCTOBER 2009

On the 30th of September and 1st of October in the Karoo town of Cradock the Slalom committee of Canoeing South Africa will be holding the second All Africa Canoe/Kayak Slalom Championships.

The first such Championships were held in Kenya in 2007. The event is designed to show case slalom to the greater canoeing community of South Africa and to the South African Olympic committee. The location and date are carefully chosen to coincide with the running of the annual international Hansa Powerade Fish River Canoe Marathon on Friday and Saturday 2nd & 3rd October 2009. Extensive support from the Hansa Powerade Fish committee, Canoeing South Africa and the Cradock community ensure that this event will be one of the most spectator friendly and enjoyable slalom events to date.

Many South African paddlers, tragically, are unfamiliar with canoe slalom. It is hoped that members of the large marathon canoeing contingent will use this opportunity to see what the exciting Olympic sport is about and consider trying their hand at it. This event, although it is an African Championships and as such will be run to full International Canoe Federation standards, is aimed primarily at amateurs and first timers therefore the organisers will accept entries from paddlers in plastic non competition type kayaks for those who wish to get a taste of the discipline without having to expend large sums of money on new equipment.

Also to encourage paddlers to try their hand at this thrilling and challenging sport no entry fee will be charged. For those paddlers who do not currently have a Canoeing South Africa river proficiency, but would like to race, a river proficiency test session will be held free of charge on one of the days preceding the event. The infamous Golf Course rapid where many a canoeist takes their final swim during the Hansa Powerade Fish Marathon has been chosen as the spot to host this event. It is perfectly situated in Cradock and has enough features to push our top athletes while being of a tame enough nature to allow anyone to attempt the course. For anyone unfortunate enough to take a swim there will be safety kayakers on hand to prevent any mishaps.

Canoe slalom is raced in four classes at the Olympics K1 men, K1 Women, C1 men and C2 men. All of these classes are raced in South Africa but only by a very small core of dedicated paddlers. Strangely enough although not practiced extensively in Africa Canoe slalom is the only Canoeing event that has ever had an African Olympic medallist. This occurred at the Beijing Olympics when Benjamin Boukapeti, the current Africa champion won the Bronze medal. Boukapeti is a Tongan national but currently races and trains in France.

Internationally Canoe slalom is arguably the biggest discipline of canoeing. France alone has more female slalom paddlers than there are canoeists in South Africa! Locally Slalom seems to be making a come back with growth in Kwa-Zulu Natal and particularly in the Free State with the Dihlabeng Canoe club who specialise in slalom going from strength to strength currently two out of our three Beijing slalom Olympians race and train with this club. They also have a number of junior national champions in various categories.

Slalom will be raced in a state of the art purpose built stadium at the London Olympics. Hopefully this event will be the first step for a select few South African athletes on their road to London in 2012. The 2nd All Africa Canoe/Kayak Slalom Championships promises to be an exhilarating and entertaining two days of racing.