DURBAN – One of South Africa’s unsung sporting heroes is 24-year-old Cape Town surfski paddler Uli Hart, who this weekend in Durban will be hoping to pick up his sixth ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships singles medal in a row.
The 2024 South African Surfski Champion comes into his first official senior World Champs with an impressive pedigree as he has moved through the age-group ranks. He won the 2019 Junior World Championships title before moving up to the U23 ranks and immediately claimed those titles in 2021 (when he was also third overall) and 2022, before adding a silver medal in 2023 and then a bronze in Portugal last year.
As a bonus, Hart and junior Georgia Singe were overall winners in the mixed doubles race last year and they will also be defending that title.
In the first ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships to be held in his home country, Hart is feeling optimistic about his chances, but is well aware that a potent field of local and international challengers will make it difficult to secure a sixth singles medal in a row.
“Yeah, I feel good … I feel strong,” said Hart from Durban where he is preparing for the World Champs this week. “I think my prep has been good, but there’s not a lot of room for error in a top 10 that could finish within 30 seconds of each other.
“But I will race hard and see what happens.”
The last major race Hart competed in off the Durban coast was the South African Championships in July 2024 and he was a convincing winner over Mark Keeling then, but he is not taking too much from that result.
“It’s like 50/50 whether we go on that same course,” he said in reference to the decision that is still to be made on the route, which is dependent on predicted weather conditions within the Friday to Sunday race window. “But I do like paddling in Durban, so you know, I feel pretty good about the conditions.
“But there are so many good paddlers entered. We can’t discount Hank (McGregor) because he lives here. And we can’t discount Gordan Harbrecht because he won the world champs last year. Then there’s also Cory Hill from Australia … and I mean I think he’s only ever did not won a medal in 2021 and 2022. And then I suppose there is also the other South Africans, the Fenn boys (Matt and Josh) and Kenny (Rice) and Nicky (Notten) … and I’m sure some of the French guys will be good as well.
“So there’s a lot of us.”
Hart said he was hoping for similar conditions to his SA Championships win in Durban where paddlers were able to enjoy some strong downwind conditions.
“Yeah, I hope it’s a downwind and then I suppose it will be technical, and I suppose I’m actually quite excited by the idea of racing in technical conditions.
“We’ve had a few World Champs were you just have to rev your engine on flattish conditions so it will be nice to have something different to that.”
Hart was third out of a Club Peninsula trio of paddlers at the 2025 SA Championships in Cape Town in April, which also served as the trials for the SA team, and he will join winner Notten, runner up Rice, McGregor, and Keeling as the official SA team.
The SA women’s team is made up of 2024 World Champion Kira Bester, Nix Birkett, Saskia Hockly, Holly Smith and Melanie van Niekerk.
The U23 team members are 2024 Junior World Champion Georgia Singe, Jade Wilson, Matt Coetzer and Reef Funston. The junior team is Alayah Krogscheepers, Jared Shrimpton. Cody Stallard and Ellen Strydom.