South Africans Take to the Green

Ramon Di Clemente and Donovan Cech are the first South Africans to take home a rowing World Championship medal after winning bronze in the men’s coxless pair at Lucerne last month.

But the Rotsee is not the only course the two men are at home on – they share a love of golf and enjoy it so much that it makes up part of their training routine.

One of the South African national training centres at Belfast has a golf course close by so at training camps the two men spend a lot of time on the green

“They’re crazy about golf,” says coach Christian Felkel.

“When the (rowing) session is over off they go and play a round.”

Felkel says golf is a good stress release for Di Clemente and Cech in the training down time and “they’re good at it too.”

There must be something to this unique training programme because the South African pair has gone from strength to strength in the last few years.

They are funded by the South African National Olympic committee’s “Operation Excellence”, a development programme for elite athletes with medal winning potential.

At the 1998 World Championships they finished 11th, in 1999 they won the B final to finish 7th, they made the final at Sydney last year and reached the medals in Lucerne.

It was close race. The South Africans recovered from a slow start to take the bronze in the final race to the line and finishing 1.72 seconds behind winners Great Britain with Yugoslavia second.

Moving further up the podium is the challenge between now and Athens although the task is much trickier than moving from 11th to 7th, Felkel says.

“There are only two places left and only 1.72 seconds between them and there are others than want them as well.”

But Felkel believes there is still plenty of room for improvement. Di Clemente and Cech know how to run a boat well now, he says, the next step is to work on their power.

With burly rivals like Matthew Pinsent and James Cracknell of Great Britain to contend with a few more pounds is bound to boost their chances.

That means plenty of strength and weight training over the international off season – but not until they’ve had a good rest and no doubt plenty of time on the green.