South Africa took an unusually young team to the rowing world championships in the US, but it was the oldest member who scooped the only medal of the regatta.
Kirsty McCann, 29, became SA's first female world rowing champion as she won only the country's second gold in the history of this competition, fighting back from third place before storming to victory.
Her torpedo run down the 2000m course at Sarasota-Bradenton on Florida's west coast was the latest trail she's blazed for women rowers in this country.
McCann was the first local female to make the podium at the under-23 world championships, back in 2010; and in 2015 she and Ursula Grobler were the first to do that at a senior world championships, bagging bronze in the lightweight double sculls.
But there's also been heartbreak, like fourth place at the 2014 world championships and a gut-wrenching fifth at the Rio Olympics last year. In both races she and Grobler were second at the 1500m mark before being overhauled on the final quarter.
Grobler, now 37, was one of several established rowers to step away from the national squad after Rio, opening the door for an influx of several under-23 competitors...