The news is too good to hold back!

Bridgitte Hartley has qualified for the Olympics in London 2012.

A brief explanation as to why we are only receiving confirmation today with the World Sprints completed on Sunday!

Bridgitte did not have a great semi and was relegated to a B Final – To qualify for London in the Ladies 500m there were only 8 spots open and with 9 ladies in the A Final Bridgitte’s dreams of getting to London seemed over.

However, Bridgitte raced an amazing B Final posting the fastest ever Ladies 500m and beating all in the A final! She was, however, still only seen as being 10^th overall as the A final held the top 9 places.

Now to count our starts: Two of the ladies in the A final had already qualified in K4’s and so they are not counted for the top 8 spots and Bridgitte is up to 8^th! BUT Bridgitte can’t celebrate yet as the British have a “Free Ride Entry” in this event so only 7 places are actually open!

FINALLY today it was confirmed that the British must have declined to use this spot and Bridgitte is back in! Wow what a rollercoaster of emotion.

If she replicates her B Final she is a genuine medal contender at London 2012!

  Cape Town - Organisers of the Hansa Breede river canoe marathon have extended their normal entry deadline to cater for the surge of eleventh hour entries for the popular 73km two day race Robertson to Swellendam, which included the defending champions Jacques Theron and Piers Cruikshanks.

The seasoned Gauteng pair will be on the startline with a highly competitive elite field, including a number of crews who are using the race as part of their training for the world marathon championships in Singapore in October. But for Theron and Cruikshanks the race is more about the attraction of the unique racing on the Breede river than anything else.

                             Jacques Theron and Piers Cruikshanks ( ActionPhoto)

Cape Town - The powerhouse crew of Lance King and Heinrich Schloms has targeted the Breede canoe marathon next weekend to prove a point and end the record breaking Cape winter paddling season on a high note.

"It is by far the best K2 combination that I have ever been involved in and we are going really well right now," said Heinrich Schloms (right) of his partnership with Lance King ahead of the Breede marathon next weekend (picture by J. Hishin)

King finished third in the Windhoek Berg after a race beset with trials and tribulations, while Schloms was one place further back. Now the duo are keen to pool their resources and concert their minor placings into victory at the two-day 73km Breede, which will also decide the Western Cape K2 championships.

Cape Town - With the closing date for entries for the 2011 Breede River canoe marathon looming large on Wednesday this week, two former winners Ant Stott and Graeme Solomon have lodged their entry, and in the process thrown down the gauntlet to the rest of the country's top K2 crews.

Solomon took the title in brutally tough low river conditions, still spoken of as the lowest ever, with Dawid Mocké, while Stott is a multiple winner of the 73km two-day race from Robertson to Swellendam.

 DOWNLOAD FULL RESULTS HERE

The 38 km section of the Breede River that was raced as part of the K2 (double canoe) season, was held on a low Breede River, that tested all competitors, as paddling in shallow water is always more difficult and in addition, canoes tend to take strain on the ‘bonier’ stretches, not to mention the steeper drops at obstacles such as Secunda Weir, scenes below which resembled a swimming gala at one stage of the race, so many paddlers had capsized! 

Follow this series of pictures taken by Lisa Scott of the leaders Ant Stott & Graeme Soloman (left) and Pierre-Andre Rabie & Andrew Birkett (right)