DURBAN – The women’s race at the ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships in Durban on October 17-19 looks like turning into an extension of South Africa’s long-standing sporting rivalry with New Zealand, with Kiwi Dani Richards facing off against a potent local contingent.
Richards, the 2019 World Champion and record-breaking winner of the 2025 Molokai race in Hawaii, could be the best bet to beat off a potent South African lineup that already boasts World Championship medals.
The South African contingent looking for home victory is a daunting group that contains 2024 World Champion and twice U23 champion Kira Bester; Durban home-town hope, 2024 senior race winner and 2021 World Champion Michelle Burn; two-time senior runner up Melanie van Niekerk; and Team Euro Steel members Jade Wilson (2021 U23 World Champion); and Saskia Hockly (2024 & 2024 U23 bronze medal winner).
However, Richards, who has been brought to South Africa for the Championships by event sponsors Euro Steel, is a supremely talented all-round paddler. Her win at the 2019 World Championships in France, and silver medal from Portugal in 2022, as well as her Molokai win from earlier this year, is enough to ensure she has to be on the list of favourites at just about any event she enters, but she also has a habit of beating the odds with some big performances when it is least expected.
By her own admission her World Championship title was “a bit of a fluke”.
“My 2019 World Champs win was super fun, but it was a bit of a fluke, because I was just so green,” she said this week. “I only raced because we were heading to South African for the International Surf Rescue Challenge (ISRC) and half my flight was paid for.
“I decided to add France into the trip and we had a cool little Kiwi crew staying together in a B and B. We had to hitch-hike or ride bikes everywhere after we found out that the trains had finished running for the end of the season.
“I remember learning a lot of lessons that day. I didn’t take any hydration and I paid badly for it after the race.
“2022 again was on the back of a surf lifesaving world championships trip. A bit of a nightmare, we turned up only two days before the race and my paddle bag had been lost. It ended up arriving the night before!
“Again, I remembering suffering a lot during that race – there was no wind and it was brutally hard conditions. I didn’t get my nutrition right and ended up pretty much passing out in the hotel within an hour of finishing.”
In 2024 Richards tried her hand at sprint canoeing and was somewhat controversially left out of the New Zealand team to compete at the Olympics despite securing a place in Paris for her country.
“Canoe sprint last year was a bit of a last-minute dash to try and make the Olympic team. It was a really valuable part of my journey, and qualifying the boat for Paris was a big step for me in learning to adapt and push myself in a different environment – especially in the K2 where its a very hard boat to paddle.
“Not being selected was tough, but I made sure I had put the right steps in place if I didn’t make the team so I had something to fall back on.”
Richards currently splits her working hours between being a lifesaving coach for the Omanu Surf Lifesaving Club and working as a talent manager for Canoe Racing NZ, and does have some experience of the Durban surf conditions to call on next month’s race.
“I competed in Durban in 2019 for the ISRC. The surf was pumping which was really cool. I also was lucky enough to do a downwind while I was there and got to experience what the Durban coastline has to offer and how tricky the conditions can be navigating your way through rocks and shore-dumpy beaches.”
As the tough Kiwi has a habit of winning against the odds, we can expect yet another chapter to be written in the book of sporting battles between the South African and New Zealand rivals.