Montemor-o-Velho (Portugal) – Cape Town’s Cody Stallard provided the highlights for South Africa at the ICF Canoe Sprint Junior and U23 World Championships in Montemor-o-Velho in Portugal over the past week.
While the rest of the South African squad found the going tough against the best young sprinters in the world, the Peninsula Canoe Club paddler was the stand-out performer for the team as he reached the C Final for both the 500m and 1 000m junior events, and went on to win the longer event after a perfectly judged race.
Stallard’s win was the high point of five days of intense racing for the seven-person team as he progressed from the heats, through the semi-finals and qualified for the third-tier finals.
In the 1000m final, Turkey’s Ramazan Canbek set a blistering pace off the start and after 250m had well over a boat length on the rest of the field, with Denmark’s Isak Thing chasing, followed by a line of three boats that included the Cape Town youngster.
As the two early leaders suffered from their fast starts, Stallard eased forward and took the lead with about 350m to go. Thing kept the pressure up until about 150m remaining when Stallard’s more conservative strategy paid dividends and he eased away to beat the Dane by 1.31 seconds, with Lithuania’s Arnas Tarvydas third, almost a second further back.
Stallard also raced in the long 5 000m mixed relay with Kayla Szalay late on Sunday afternoon and finished 18th.
Under 23 Alexa Godden paddled three events at the regatta, and after reaching the semi-finals in both her 200m and 500m races, she joined Jordan Klopper in the U23 mixed relay where they finished 16th.
Earlier in the week, Klopper progressed out of the heats in the 200m K1 where he finished ninth in the semi-finals.
Team results
Junior Men
Cody Stallard: 1 000m K1 – 1st C Final; 500m K1 – 9th C Final
Jimmy Papadopoulos: 200m K1 – 7th heats
Matthew Wilson and Sbulelo Ngobese: 500m K2 – 8th heats
Junior Women
Kayla Szalay: 1 000m K1 – 8th heats; 500m K1 – 8th heats;
U23 Women
Alexa Godden: 200m K1 – 8th semi-final; 500m K1 – 8th semi-final
U23 Men
Jordan Klopper: 500m K1 – 8th heats; 200m K1 – 9th semi-final
U23 Mixed:
Godden and Klopper: 5000m relay – 16th
Junior Mixed:
Stallard and Szalay: 5000m relay – 18th
