Two years ago American Arshay Cooper visited SA to share how the sport of rowing had shown him tranquillity and steered him away from the crime and chaos of Chicago where he grew up.
The author of “A Most Beautiful Thing”, he made it his life mission to introduce rowing to people of colour in the US and globally.
Two years later his visit is showing green shoots in Africa and heralds what is believed to be the first all-black SA crew charting new territory at the world’s most prestigious regatta, the Head of the Charles in Boston, Massachusetts, in October.
Rowing SA has its own development programme that does as much as it can within obvious limits but this mission has been a personal goal for University of Western Cape rowing mentor Michael Ortlepp.
He is quick to not take all the credit for it though and has merely acted as a virtual coxswain (he was a cox in his own UCT rowing career) in pulling everything together.
“Rand Merchant Bank does amazing things in funding for SA rowing; Western Cape Rowing’s Ken Gliddon helps us get boats at UWC as well as fix them, coach Caitlin Dace at St Johns Rowing Club in Johannesburg helps us with equipment and Lawhill Maritime’s Debbie Owen is always around.”
Hygiene Disposables is Ortlepp’s day job, and CEO Roscoe Hanna is very much on board with internal funding for the team and glad to be making a difference.
But if it wasn’t for Cooper’s foundation, named after his book, this wouldn’t be happening. “The trip is being funded by private donors, Arshay and Delta Airlines and is part of the expansion of rowing, still seen globally as a rich, white-dominated sport, to something a whole lot more inclusive.”
Ortlepp has done great work at UWC, which will now boast the most female crews (three) at this week’s SA Universities Regatta on the Kowie River, Eastern Cape, on September 11-13.
“My vision is to simply be able to open up the sport in terms of demographics. It’s an expensive sport but if we were able to take away the financial aspect, the amount of talent we have in SA is incredible.
“If just 1% of the SA population rowed we’d have more than double the number of rowers we now have.”
To Lebone Mokheseng, Sepitle Leshilo and Lwazi Zwane falls the honour of being that first all-black African crew at the Head of the Charles. A late injury has left one position still to be filled at the last minute but it’s still all systems go.
Ortlepp is quick to point out that this is not a “rebel” crew aiming to show anyone up, it’s just a case of grasping at opportunities “and tap into the vast market of colour in SA’s sporting demographics”.
“These guys are the tip of the sword, and have the potential to inspire an entire new generation.”
In rowing terms, the Head of the Charles is the big daddy of world rowing.
“There are over 30,000 rowers in Boston [compared to 3,000 in the entire SA]. There are Olympians, ex-Olympians, top university alumni, national teams. It’s truly the who’s who of world rowing.”
All crews race the 4.7km route and the SA crew will be in the Men’s Club 4+ category, with a black female cox.
As for Leshilo the sheer enthusiasm in the 26-year-old Germiston born and bred athlete is like a human tsunami.
His rowing journey began at Germiston High. “The school used to have an awards ceremony in term three each year and if you had worked really hard in a particular area you could get a scroll and update your blazer. A black blazer is the first updated blazer and then the next step has purple and white embroidered on it.
“It sets you apart and I said to myself: ‘I want to walk around in one of those blazers, it’s a sign that you’ve actually achieved something special’. Rowing trials were happening and myself and a few mates signed up.”
‘Push-ups nightmare’
He says it was gruelling at first. “We went to a base fitness camp and, man, even doing 10 push-ups was a nightmare. As the days progressed we went from hundreds to about 20-30 people left.”
A while later young Leshilo received a letter saying he’d made the rowing team. “I remember running home and telling my parents that I’d made the team — it was my first real achievement and I’ve never stopped chasing those highs.”
Things moved on and Sepitle says Germiston High’s rowing efforts started being congratulated by the competitors of top rowing schools such as St Albans.
Come 2018 and Leshilo was at University of Johannesburg (he’s now a software developer for a start-up company). Then came the Covid-19 pandemic, which set all sport back but luckily for Leshilo he had access to an ergometer machine and put the spare time to good use.
We were in a freezing pool recovering when the coach told us we’d made the A Final. I was so excited I put my head entirely under the water, and I was so excited it didn’t even feel cold.
“I made the team for World University Games but because of the strict lockdown rules in China the Games were postponed.”
There was still the local university regatta though and Leshilo was the stroke for the men’s eight. There were different opinions about what stroke rate was best. He said the speed felt great but he wasn’t sure whether they had done enough.
“We were in a freezing pool recovering when the coach told us we’d made the A Final. I was so excited I put my head entirely under the water, and I was so excited it didn’t even feel cold.”
Leshilo got word of the Head of the Charles “expedition” in May when Ortlepp phoned him. “I thought, no ways, the excitement levels were just ‘stupid’. I’m hugely into aviation and immediately opened up Flight Radar to check out the flights — it’s my first long-haul flight!”
Confirmation of the flights came a month ago “and I loaded Flight Simulator to pretend I was flying from Joburg to London and to Boston — I’m the only team member who hasn’t represented the country.”
And he’s eternally grateful to Cooper and his foundation. “If you’d told me this news when I was at high school I would have refused to believe it. It’s an insane opportunity and I won’t let this team down.
“I’ve done research on the course and am looking forward to meeting top athletes and just embracing the competition, culture, local food and the whole experience.”
Leshilo and crew are just the tip of the African iceberg and when they return, no matter what the result, their experience should have a huge ripple effect in the vast untapped talent pool that is SA.
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