The 2024 South African Canoe Polo Championships, held on May 4-5 at Baynesfield Estate, Richmond, was a huge success. There were 90 athletes from 16 teams – 5 senior and 11 junior – representing Gauteng, Western Cape and KZN, all competing for national titles which made for some exciting games.

The Gauteng Men’s team, who ultimately claimed the senior men’s title, had to fight hard to retain their first place from 2023, against a greatly improved Western Cape side. A closely-fought final proved to be an exciting end to a busy weekend of polo, with the teams only separated by a single goal for the majority of the match that ended 5-3 to Gauteng.

In the women’s category, Gauteng managed to fight back with a series of excellent goals, from two goals behind KZN to win by two

With the majority of athletes in the junior age groups, this tournament provided some of the best polo we have seen in these younger age categories. Western Cape took the junior male honours ahed aof KZN, who had to fight hard for their silver medal by stopping a late charge from Gauteng, who came from three goals down to finish only one goal behind.

KZN won their first junior women’s title in a few years, ousting long time reigning champions Gauteng. The standard of the junior women has improved dramatically over the last year, and they are definitely going to be making more of a name for themselves over the coming months if this weekend’s performance is any indication of the future.

A final mention goes to the ever-improving and impressive Stellenbosch mixed team, with an average age of 14. They unfortunately didn’t qualify for any of the category titles but they did win Division 2 of the tournament by beating all other teams they came up against, including the senior women’s teams. They show amazing skill for the game and were definitely a big draw for the spectators on the weekend.

Thank you to all the players, parents and supporters that travelled from across the country to play hard, cheer enthusiastically, and enjoy the music and dancing around the bonfire in the evenings. A huge thank you from the entire Canoe Polo community goes out to all those that helped make this a successful weekend, especially the Baynesfield Estate for hosting us at their beautiful venue, and Maritzburg College for excellent accommodation and catering.