New Zealander Danielle Richards (nee McKenzie) won the silver medal at Sunday’s women’s single ski event at the ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships in Durban, adding a 3rd medal to her already impressive ocean ski world championship medal collection, which includes a gold (2019) and silver (2022).
South Africa’s first time hosting of the ICF Canoe Ocean Racing promised great downwind ocean ski conditions and while it didn’t quite deliver on an epic downwind, it was a memorable and exciting race for the over 500 paddlers who raced the 34km course down the coastline from Durban Undersea Club to Westbrook.
The women’s race got underway first with Danielle getting away from the beach cleanly and leading the pack out to sea. She was in the lead with defending world champion Kira Bester on her tail as the field turned the first buoy into the downwind run. The pair split from there with Kira heading in closer to shore while “DMac” stayed out wide. When the two converged at the compulsory turning buoy at around the halfway mark, Kira had built a small lead . Kira paddled courageously to maintain her lead for the remainder of the course and through the nerve-wracking shore break. A wobbly paddle in the surf by Kira kept it exciting right up to the last few metres as Danielle chased her down, but she held strong to cross the finish line just 23 seconds ahead of the kiwi to retain her title on home soil.
Great Britain’s Rosie Edwards just edged out Georgia Singe for both the final place on the overall podium and the U23 title, while Frenchwoman Judit Verges rounded out the top five.
“I started hard, the only way I know how.” said Danielle post-race. “The back end of the course was tough, the runners were hard to catch which made it a grind, especially in the humidity. There weren’t many “paddles down” moments.
“With any long 34km course, it was about trying to manage the body while still pushing and I found that difficult. Thanks to my surf lifesaving skills, I was able to navigate through the break easily and enjoyed a nice wave to the finish. Well done to Kira for an incredible paddle and a well-deserved win.”
In the men’s race, Australian Cory Hill won his 4th World Championship title convincingly, securing his place as one of the greatest in the sport (if not already). He paddled a strategically strong race, paddling conservatively in the first half before paddling through the leaders just after the halfway mark and putting on a masterclass in downwind paddling for the last half.
He casually walked up the sand with his ski towards the finish before raising his paddle overhead in victory after confirming he was the first to the beach.
Frenchman Pierre Vilella was in second with Bernardo Pereira from Portugal taking third. Former World Champions Nic Notten from South African and German Gordan Harbrecht rounded out the top five.
This highlighted how universal the sport has become, with five different countries represented in the men’s top five. Ocean ski has historically been dominated by Australia and South Africa but the European countries are now developing strong ocean paddlers.
Gene Prato, a New Zealand based paddler who raced for South Africa, finished an impressive 14th overall, amongst and in front of some high profile names in the ocean ski world.
Junior Grace Richardson was 10th in the U18 female category and 48th women overall, and Liam Lace finished in his senior men’s age group category.
Well done to all our kiwi paddlers for an awesome World Championship campaign this year.
