WCCC SPRINT CHAIR Age: 26 Weight: 78.5kg Height: 175cm Personal Best: 1st place B-final men’s 200m k1, World Cup 1, Montemor-O-Velho, Portugal. African Champion men’s 200m k1, Shongweni, South Africa
Chrisjan Coetzee On the day that my father took me to do my first ever race, the Hermanus Stanford, my uncle showed me videos from sprint world championships and Olympics. I didn’t know what sprint racing was at the time and the races in those videos looked really interesting and exciting to me. Soon after my second race of my life was the WP sprint champs. I was still only racing in a guppy against the others in K1’s in my age category but I really enjoyed it. Sometime later WCCU appointed Hungarian 7-time sprint kayak World Champion Robert Hegedus as Head Coach. With Coach Robert in the WP and national athletes like Shaun Rubenstein, Michelle Eray, Jen Hudson, Carol Joyce and Bridgitte Hartley at the time doing really well on the world stage, I was inspired to pursue sprinting and have been ever since.
Where do you train? Do you have a coach?
I started paddling on a small dammed up stretch of the Berg River in Paarl (Paarl Canoe Club) and am still training there today. I have not had a coach for the last 5 years or so unfortunately but have gained invaluable experience from previous coaches; my farther Jan Coetzee, Wayne August, Robert Hegedus, Zoltan Bako and Marcus Melck. Over the years I have had the opportunity to train with and race against some great athletes and coaches from around the world and have always tried to build on my experience from every opportunity.
Which is your favourite distance? Do you prefer K1 or K2 and would you consider K4’s
My first ever national win was in the 500m K1 as a junior, so obviously the 500m is a classic distance to me. However, I really like to go all out and see just how fast I can go on the 200m and have been focusing on the 200m k1 for the last couple of years. Some of my best paddling experiences of my sprint career was racing the national K4 1000m along with teammates PW Basson, Gavin White, Fouche van Tonder and Greg Louw with Coach Zoltan Bako at the helm for the years 2010 and 2011.
How do you manage race day nerves?
For me to best manage my race day nerves is just to stick to my normal warmup routine that I do before almost all my training sessions daily. I’m obviously very used to this routine and therefor it sets me up best for my race. I also like to watch some races to get me excited and in the racing zone and listening to good music always helps.
Your goals for this year?
My goals for this year is to get back on the international racing circuit and try to improve on last year’s performances. Training has been tough due to the severe drought in the Western Cape and hard financially due to no support from our sporting bodies. Racing internationally comes at great financial expense and this can be very demotivating as well as there are not many local sprint races to look forward to.
Are you aiming for 2020 Olympics?
After missing out on London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics I am as always aiming for the next Olympics as long as I can keep on improving.