Bridgette Hartley - interview

CATCHING UP WITH BRIDGITTE HARTLEY South Africa’s own Sprint Legend

IMAGE: canoephotography.com/Balint Vekassy (ICF)

PM Favourite coffee shop?

BH Vovo Telo (we are not saying which one ;) PM When you are not thinking about racing the next day, your favourite dinner BH Roast chicken & vegetables PM Top K1 speed BH Approx 19,3 km/h in a 200m event PM Music choices to train to BH I don’t listen to music while I train, preferring nature as much as possible. I love up beat songs in the gym - like top 40 hits.

PM Specific diet to cope with the demands of your hectic schedule BH I try stick to a good diet as I often struggle to eat enough for the amount of training hours. I don’t eat wheat so I always need to take rice cakes or snacks with me when I travel to ensure I am refuelling constantly. I am a picky eater so I naturally prefer fruit vegetables, meat & mainly good healthy food.

Sometimes it’s hard during training, so I often take chocolate with me as it’s a quick pick me up.

PM Impressions of the Olympic Village as an athlete BH An Olympic village can be amazing and it can also be the biggest distraction for an athlete. I don’t like the busy eating hall and crazy streets full of athletes. It is a wonderful experience if one bumps into other amazing & successful athletes like Usain Bolt etc. The games room is always cool if there’s time, and the eating hall is bigger

than a rugby field so it’s quite an experience!

PM The opening ceremony BH I only walked into the opening ceremony in Beijing. This really was an incredible experience, team SA who walked in were relatively big compared to 2012 & 2016 so I am so glad that I managed to walk in during the Beijing games. The athletes started singing Shosaloza which really made us feel like a team even though we were all from different sports.

PM Why paddling/ sprints?

BH I was actually never the best at any of the sports I competed in, which included hockey, athlectics and surfing. I took up river paddling to join my dad and some guys at Tuks got me to go train in Benoni with Nandor Almasi a Hungarian coach, he taught me so much. The group was competitive which I thrived on and just kept improving!

PM K1 looks like it can get quite lonely on the water BH This past season has become lonelier as I haven’t had a fixed training group, however many of the younger paddling guys in PMB have helped me get through many sessions, letting me sit on their wave.

Abby Solms joined me in November and December last year to help her Dusi prep. Closer to the games I chose to go to Brazil to try get a coach to help me, but I didn’t have training partners so that wasn’t so much fun.

PM When did going the Olympics

become a dream?

BH To be honest it wasn’t a dream from young, I remember watching Alan van Coller in 2004 while I was studying. I was glued to watching the slalom events so that’s when I started thinking that it would be cool to compete in an Olympics but didn’t think it would become a reality so soon in 2008 PM Making a dream become reality BH I set some goals and never gave

You know about these...

2008 Represented SA, Beijing Olympics K2 500m with Michelle Eray 2009 Bronze World Cup K1 1000m, Szeged, Hungary 2012 Bronze K1 500m, London Olympics 2014 Bronze K1 500m ICF Canoe Sprint Championships, Moscow 2016 African Federation’s Woman Paddler of the Year 2016 Represented SA, Rio Olympics K1 200m and 500m

BUT what about these...

2013 2nd, Fish River Canoe Marathon with Robyn Kime 2015 2nd, Fish River Canoe Marathon with Michelle Burn

up, I just kept changing things if I hit bumps along the way. I sacrificed a lot of time with friends especially (I have trained through every single December since 2008). I spent many lonely months living alone in Europe, allowing me to train with Hungarians everyday, twice a day... challenging myself against the best in the world.

PM Qualifying rules for canoe sprinters In order to qualify for the Olympics BH The first rounds qualifying process for Olympics games is a birth or boat for the country. This means that the person who qualifies in the boat can change if they are beaten the following year by a fellow countrymen according to that countries set of selection criteria rules.

The qualifying is not about a time as it’s an outdoor sport, it’s a place qualified for at the world championships in the year prior to Olympics: * Top eight K1 boats * Top six K2 boats * Top ten K4 boats However if the same person sits in a K4 and qualifies a K1 or K2 then there is a count back from 8th place.

Which is how my 10th place result at world champs allowed me to qualify for Rio. PM Training schedule in the run-up to the Olympics 2008 BH We didn’t have so much money and I didn’t have a sponsor besides Lotto funding which we only received later to pay back our costs after the tour. I spent from May after racing World Cups in Hungary training, as I couldn’t afford to fly home. I had training camps with a group of C1 paddlers in Sepal and then a month

IMAGES: supplied by BH

training camp with the SA team again before flying from Hungary directly to Beijing.

PM Did your training schedule change as you gained experience?

BH I became more aware of things I could work on to improve weaknesses. Like Pilates, yoga and certain stretches. I had more goals in time trials, trying to better my times.

PM After coming second with Robyn Kime at the Fish in 2013 were you not temped to change to river paddling?

BH I really loved paddling the rivers with Robyn she was very relaxed always and we combined very well as far as I can remember, I just needed to learn to relax in the rapids. I had already set my goal on another Olympics even though I did consider doing more river races. I was worried about getting an injury.

PM Coping with travelling BH When I first started to paddle I missed home but I seemed to always make it work as I had bigger training groups to join. After doing this for so many years I have started to feel more and more lonely overseas as I struggled to align myself with training partners in countries where I had access to a boat, cheaper accommodation, a coach and training partners. The choice to stay at home more in the last two years didn’t give me the result I hoped for in Rio, as I didn’t have other girls or C1 boats at an international level to train with this time.

PM Assistance from CSA, SASCOC or sponsors BH CSA has helped quite a lot as sprinting is an Olympic event which allows the Federation to apply for Lotto funding. Rivers and

marathon races are not aligned to getting funding like this as they not Olympic events. My Federation has assisted with booking flights etc. when I haven’t had enough money to pay for my air tickets or pay for accommodation. The SASCOC money has been good as well, I wouldn’t be able to go on any international training camps if I didn’t get that money. However it’s a budget and the monthly amounts for foods and petrol have not changed over a 8 year period. I have to spend the money in advance, submit receipts then hope I get paid back the entire claim. I have got some great product sponsors, but no financial sponsors.

PM Advice to sprinters looking to follow in your footsteps?

BH Keep putting in the hard work, it doesn’t take one year to get good enough to qualify for an Olympics, it can take 4-8 years.

PM Where to from here BH I have been reminded by many people that I can’t forget the achievements and history I have made as being the first paddler from South Africa and Africa to get world champs medals and an Olympic medal and not just remember the races that didn’t go well in Rio. I honestly love paddling and I am not ready to give it up yet, I have my eye set on getting 1 or 2 medals in K1 & K2 next year at the Marathon World Champs which South Africa is hosting. I will take on a new challenge of rivers and Surfski races between now and then.

After Marathon World Champs I will reset & decide the way forward.

My heart is on another Olympics, but financially I am uncertain if it’s possible as I get older.