Hamish Lovemore won the men’s K1 short race at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships on Friday, 23 October 2026, holding off Denmark’s Mads Brandt Pedersen by 2.54 seconds for his first individual senior world title.
Lovemore covered the three-lap course, which included two portages, in 11:20.92. Pedersen crossed in 11:23.46 and Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta, the defending champion, in 11:24.45.
Three men, 3.53 seconds between first and third.
The race should have been run a day earlier. A storm forced the postponement of the Thursday short-course finals, which pushed the men’s K1 short race final to the Friday evening.
The win ends a long run of near misses. By Lovemore’s own count, he had collected eight silver medals at international events over the previous three years.
“I’ve had eight silver medals from various international events over the last three years so nice to get on the top step for a change” – Hamish Lovemore
How Hamish Lovemore Won The K1 Short Race World Title
Pimenta set the race up early and led it. Lovemore and Pedersen were the stronger pair over the two portages, where a paddler climbs out, carries the boat and gets back in without losing ground.
Pedersen went for it late. Lovemore sat behind the two of them and let them pull him along, then came past both in the sprint for the line.
PaddleSport South Africa reported that Pimenta put his paddles down roughly 20 metres out, with the race already gone.
“Mads and Pimenta were having an absolute battle and I was benefitting by sitting on the wash. I knew I had a good finish.” – Hamish Lovemore
The men’s K1 short race podium:
- 🥇 Hamish Lovemore (RSA) — 11:20.92
- 🥈 Mads Brandt Pedersen (DEN) — 11:23.46
- 🥉 Fernando Pimenta (POR) — 11:24.45
The Seat That Arrived On The Morning Of The Final
Lovemore raced the heats in a boat that was not properly his. Airline baggage delays held up his custom seat and footrest, and he paddled the early rounds on a temporary setup.
The equipment reached him in time for the final. He fitted it on the Friday morning and tested the boat in a short warm-up before racing that evening.
A marathon seat and footrest are built to one paddler’s own measurements, and they decide how he sits, where his weight goes and how he gets back into the boat after a portage. He spent the week before the biggest race of his career working around a stand-in version of both.
He then beat the two men who have beaten him more often than anyone else.
Lovemore won the under-23 K1 marathon world title in 2022 at Ponte de Lima in Portugal, finishing in 1:54:18.42 ahead of Denmark’s Philip Knudsen. Senior gold on his own had not followed.
He was second in the K1 short race at the 2024 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Metković. He was second twice at the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, in both the short and standard K1 marathon races, behind Pedersen each time.
He was second in the K1 5000 m at the canoe sprint world championships in 2025, and second again in 2026, when his silver was the only medal South Africa won across the entire regatta in Poznań.
Lovemore, who is from Umdloti on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast and turned 27 in August, made his Olympic debut in Paris in 2024, racing the K1 1000 m and the K2 500 m alongside Andy Birkett.
Gold For Keegan Vogt And Bronze For Georgia Singe
The short race was not South Africa’s only result on the Friday. PaddleSport South Africa reported a double on day two, with junior paddler Keegan Vogt winning the junior men’s short-course gold on the same evening.
Georgia Singe added bronze in the women’s under-23 K1, IOL reported.
Lovemore’s week was not finished there either. He was entered later in the championships in the senior long-course K1, and in the senior K2 alongside Vogt.
