Congratulations to 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐰𝐚𝐧 – class of 2014, ex student from Danville Park Girls high school, the new 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐈𝐎𝐍 at the World Championships Shore Angling for Pairs that took place over a 4 day period in Portugal this November 2021.
Over and above her individual achievement Team South Africa, also came home with the Gold, winning the Team Trophy at the World Championships Shore Angling for Pairs that took place in Tròia, Grândola, Portugal.
The competition at the World Champs was very tough and Team SA had to overcome a lot of COVID red tape to get there and the odds just were not in their favour. Cara was the only woman from South Africa and her pairs partner were already seen as the underdogs but both of them were determined to prove everyone wrong.
We managed to chat to Cara on her return from Portugal.
“The first two days of the competition we were middle of the pack lying in 8th position. Going into day 3 we had a strategy to win our zone so that we could move up a few positions and we achieved the goal of winning the zone, taking us to third overall.”
“I realised that night that we would have to win the day on the last day to win overall, no South African has ever won this competition and no South African team in the last 35 years has brought home a team gold medal. It’s important in these moments to not let the pressure get to you and to keep a calm and clear head. The last day was the longest 4 hours, we managed to stay neck and neck with the current first place winners up until the final cast where we got to fish as the final hooter went. We still were unsure if we had moved ahead as we had to wait on the size of the fish to confirm.”
“When we finally got confirmation, the feeling was indescribable, it felt like the past 10 years of competing was all worth it, I felt proud of myself for proving to all the men that being female is by no means a disadvantage and I hope that from all of this it is the thing that shines the brightest, not that I won the world champion title, but that a FEMALE won. It is a huge honour and privilege to hold this title. I am very blessed to be given the opportunity to go, and by grace.
Team SA came back as reigning champions with Gold and Bronze medals. Congratulations to PS: it’s GOLD & BRONZE #protea #teamSA #shoreangling #worldchampions Jacques Malherbe Cara Cowan Wimpie Barnard Brian McFarlane, Andrew Narainsamy Riyadh Cassim Eben Swanepoel Helder Fernandes José Afonso Dino Carlos Meneses Jace Govender Sachali Viljoen Pierre Viljoen Vimal Ganesh Kishanth Ramsoorooj Ashwin Singh Adiel Behardien #SASAA #SASAAC #winningteam





