Mark Keeling represented South Africa in three different disciplines of paddling this year, ultimately walking away as a world champion in the senior men’s surfski at the World Lifesaving Championships in Italy. PHOTO: Jamie Venter
Mark Keeling has always been a passionate paddler but, after being retrenched from his work in April, he has had a phenomenal year in the sport, representing South Africa in three different paddling disciplines in events across the world.
“It was a masterclass, I don’t think anyone was expecting it,” says Cheyne Haupt of his friend and South African Lifesaving teammate Mark Keeling.
When they had lined up for the senior men’s surf ski final at the World Lifesaving Championships in Italy, they had known it would be a tough race, explains Haupt.
“He was on my inside and a few of his big competitors were on my outside so it gave me the perfect opportunity to force them to work a little harder,” he says, “I got a good start but after that, it was all up to Mark.”
From there it was a full-throttle battle, explains Haupt. Keeling sat with the leader for a bit until he eventually made his move, he cut down the inside of the turning marker, Haupt says. After that, it was a final sprint back to the finish, with some of the world’s best on his heels.
“I got a front row seat to watch him become a world champion.”
After an excellent performance that saw him cross the line as a world champion, Mark Keeling celebrated by making a claim, he explains. “I didn’t mean it to come across that I was looking for my competitors, I feel a bit stupid for that,” he says.
The famous claim that caused so much controversy came from an inside joke, explains Keeling.
During training teammate Cheyne Haupt joked, that it would be his claim if he won where he would also put up his index finger to show that he was looking for the number one. “So not thinking at that point, I copied him but forgot the number one,” says Keeling. VIDEO: Sourced/Surflifesaving Germany
A year to remember
After being retrenched from his work as a mechanical and mechatronics engineer at the end of April, Keeling decided to take the year to focus on his paddling career, he explains.
“In his own quiet way Mark is fiercely determined and very resilient,” says his mother, Merrin Keeling. “After high school he found it difficult to train alone but when the opportunity arose at the end of April, he wanted to take his chances,” she explains.
“In his mind, he believed he could achieve his goals, albeit alone,” she adds. Keeling trained under the mentorship of fellow paddlers and coaches which led to some phenomenal results, Merrin explains.
In 2022, Keeling placed 5th in K1 5000m at the World Canoe Sprint Championships, 13th overall in the World Ocean Racing (surf ski) Championships and 1st Senior Men’s surf ski and 3rd Senior Oceanman Relay at the World Lifesaving Championships.
“He is one of the few athletes to have represented his country on almost every single paddling stage there is,” says Haupt. This includes sprints, lifesaving, long-distance paddling and marathon paddling which are the big four disciplines of the sport, he adds.
“So for someone to show that you can do all of those disciplines and do three of those in one season is phenomenal,” says Haupt.
Keeling has been “juggling three different types of training for three different distances in three different types of paddling,” explains Haupt. “It’s a big ask from anyone and I think he is an exceptional athlete to have been able to do that.”
Junior career
“When I was a kid I was very different to what I am now,” says Keeling, adding that he had much preferred staying inside and playing video games. That was until he joined the Fish Hoek Surf Lifesaving Club (FHSLSC) in 2012, he explains.
“Lifesaving was the difference, the moment I joined there my life changed,” says Keeling. His parents didn’t expect it at all, explains Keeling. “It was a huge change for me,” he adds.
Lifesaving offered an opportunity to try paddling and “from the outset it was clear he loved the surf ski,” says Merrin.
Family and friends from the Fish Hoek Surf Lifesaving Club have “changed my life,” says Mark Keeling, a South African paddler who recently became mens surfski world champion at the World Lifesaving Championships in Italy. PHOTO: Jamie Venter
But, while the love for paddling came naturally to him, the skill did not, he explains. “I remember fondly when a friend and I were trying to learn to paddle and neither of us could,” he says. “We could catch a little wave and fall out, catch another little wave and fall out again and that was how it started.”
“I enjoyed it immediately but wasn’t a natural, I just enjoyed it and did a lot of it and then got good at it,” he explains.
Keeling explains that he then joined Dawid Mocke at the Surfski School in preparation for the upcoming lifesaving season. It was not long after that he had his first big achievement at the South African Surf Lifesaving Championships in Durban in 2013.
“I was coming second in surf ski but they reran the race and I couldn’t get out past the surf again,” says Keeling. “I lost my ski, it washed up on the beach and I balled my eyes out crying,” he explains.
It was the first time Keeling felt that he could actually find success in the sport and despite not winning, people “could see how my heart was in it.”
He developed very quickly and “surprised us in 2016 by winning the Senior Male Surfski at South African Surf Lifesaving Championships,” explains Merrin.
It is “one of the races that has always stuck with me,” explains Keeling. “It was a surreal experience and then going on to win the Junior World Championships for surf ski in Tahiti in 2015.”
In the name
Keeling has a family legacy of sporting prowess. Keeling himself was named for the renowned six-time Ironman Triathlon World Champion, Mark Allen.
“There is a book called Iron War about two athletes, Dave Scott and Mark Allen,” explained Keeling. The two men “came together in this big clash of the two different styles of training and then Mark Allen won because he would train to heart rate and be really clever about his training.”
“My parents, my brother and my sisters are my biggest supporters,” explained Keeling. “Whatever I have ever needed or ever wanted, they are there.”
His father, Brian Keeling is an extremely accomplished triathlete. His brother, Shaun Keeling is a rower who represented South Africa at both the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2016 Rio Olympics where he won the silver medal in the men’s coxless pair.
Lifesaving world champion Mark Keeling works out in a gym that also houses his brother, Shaun Keeling’s 2016 Rio Olympic silver medal for rowing, as well as other memorabilia including his father, Brian Keeling’s iron man caps and grandfather’s Comrades medals. PHOTO: Jamie Venter
“We grew up in a household with sport constantly on the TV and our dad always doing some form of running race or triathlon,” says brother Shaun. “Our dad, Brain Keeling, completed 27 Comrades along with a number of Iron man events all over the world,” says Shaun, “so going to these events growing up and watching him, makes pushing yourself seem normal”.
“We both share a love for the sport. I loved rowing and Mark loves paddling,” says Shaun.
Mark has a deep passion for paddling and that is what allows him to train when tired and enjoy pushing his body and pushing the limits, says Shaun.
“The love of the sport pulls you through the dark patches and lets you dream about competing and achieving your goals on the world stage,” he adds.
“It was something that I was told all the time,” says Lifesaving world champion Mark Keeling, “if you’re not somebody without the gold medal then you actually are nobody”. PHOTO: Jamie Venter
More than a gold medal
“It was something that I was told all the time,” says Keeling, “if you’re not somebody without the gold medal then you actually are nobody”.
As fantastic as it is to win, for him the most important thing is to have fun and share those experiences with others, Keeling explains.
“Like with my brother when he won his silver medal,” says Keeling, “he carried it around with him to show people and talk about his experience of actually getting there.”
It is important to share the highs and lows of getting there, explains Keeling. “To inspire people to strive towards that, if it is something they are thinking about.”
“Sharing that experience is something that is really cool.”
“One thing that I have learnt recently is to share that experience with other people,” says Lifesaving world champion Mark Keeling. “If you are enjoying it, that’s all that matters at the end of the day and sharing that with other people.” PHOTO: Jamie Venter