Four players will represent South Africa at the Junior International Championships in Ireland this July. The team, drawn from children living on farms in Stellenbosch, meets three times a week at a small dam on Polkadraai Road to play canoe polo—also known as kayak polo—a water‑polo style game played from kayaks.
“Playing canoe polo helps me relax, to get rid of my stress,” says Camurin Abrahams, one of the team’s strongest players. Abrahams is the highest‑ranking under‑18 player in the Western Cape and, along with Dale Pretorius, Romano Lackay and Keeshia Lackay, will travel abroad for the first time to compete in the Junior International Championships.
Kayak polo is well known internationally but remains relatively new in South Africa, according to coach Susan Fietz. The Stellenbosch team aims to broaden access to sport for farm‑based children and relies on funding from Canoeing South Africa and private donors. Practices still use makeshift goalposts, and because the country has only one under‑18 category, the squad includes children aged 8 to 18.
Fietz emphasizes the sport’s developmental benefits: participants gain leadership skills, teamwork experience, and water safety knowledge. In a typical match, five players per side compete to score goals, with the goalposts suspended two metres above the water. Players may throw the ball by hand or pass it with their paddles. One of the most technical moves is the “roll,” where a player is pushed over by a teammate while holding the ball and then resurfaces on the opposite side. (See video here.)
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