Ten of the best with Bridgitte Hartley
DAVE MACLEOD
AS WOMEN’S month draws to a close, South Africa’s most celebrated women’s sprint paddler Bridgitte Hartley completed her 10th ICF Sprint Canoeing World Championships in Hungary, finishing with a barnstorming fourth place in the women’s 5000m K1 race.
Celebrated for her bronze medal at the London Olympics, Hartley has tasted success across many different canoeing disciplines, including river marathons, surfski racing and flatwater marathon racing.
The Richards Bay-born, Pietermaritzburg-based Hartley reflects on her career. I was just a young, bubbly, happy-golucky, eager paddler who soaked up the incredible atmosphere of representing South Africa for the first time at a sprinting world championships and meeting some of the fastest sprint paddlers in the world! I even tried to take pictures with as many of them as I could possibly find! I had no worries in the world! The boat models seem to be the constant change. The sport has been driving towards focusing on shorter events leading into an Olympic year as well as equality of male and female quota numbers competing on an Olympic level. The total athlete numbers just keep growing with Szeged this month hosting the biggest sprint world championships ever with over 100 nations competing in 2019! I definitely started my career as more of a carefree, clumsy young girl with big eyes in awe of everyone around me! I have grown as a person and athlete by learning how to set goals, make friends from other countries, and joining training squads. I have managed to learn how to focus better during every race! I used to wear a white trucker cap with the African continent on the front to keep my eyes looking forward and not getting distracted by the girl racing in the lane next to me. This enabled me to focus
on my race and my race plan! I love training in Hungary. I have always learnt the most and pushed my limits on all the training camps which I have had in Hungary! My favourite group to train with was a camp we had in November 2011 in Florida. It was a large group of girls all training together from Denmark, Norway, Canada, Sweden, Ireland. This was definitely one of the best five-week training camps I have had with girls who are still my friends now! Szeged, Hungary is most definitely my absolute favourite venue to sprint in! I have competed in three world championships in Szeged in 2006, 2011 and 2019. It was my first World Championships for SA, I won my first World Cup Olympic distance medal there in 2009, beating the 2008 Olympic medallists. I qualified for the London Olympics on the same race course in 2011. The Hungarians know how to host an event of this calibre! I am not sure I could have done anything too different as I think all the experiences have moulded me into the athlete and person that I am today! It would have been amazing to have had more teammates and family around me on more training camps so it didn’t become so lonely at times! I am grateful for the career I was able to experience.
Favourite food: Chicken and vegetables Favourite drink: Sparkling water Favourite holiday destination: Barcelona, Spain On a day off I like to: Go surfing or find a cool coffee shop to test out Favourite read: Dan Carter and Penny Heyns’ books Music preference: Indie Rock TV is tuned to: I don’t have a TV! It would be Hawaii 5O if I was to choose a series! Pet hate: When someone stands almost on top of me while standing in a queue! My medals are all kept: I have started to frame my best medal achievements with pictures and the others are all in a bag! My Olympic medal lives in a safe! Next on my to-do list: There are still too many! Run the Comrades (Marathon), compete in a Sani2c (mountain bike stage race), win one or two more medals for South Africa in paddling, have a baby!