Krieger and Arthur rule the roost in Winklespruit

PADDLER Wade Krieger claimed his maiden victory at this year’s FNB Durban Downwind Surfski Series while Hayley Arthur secured a second consecutive race win in the women’s clash, in the ET Security/Andre’s Electrical Winkle Surfski Challenge, the penultimate race of the five leg series, at the weekend.

Krieger made the transition from surf lifesaving to surfski relatively recently however his consistency and willingness to learn has seen him become a regular presence amid KZN’s world class field of elite paddlers.

With many of the province’s top athletes absent from Winklespruit’s start line due to their participation in the weekend’s Mauritius Ocean Classic and having seen victory slip through his finger two weekends ago at the Seabreeze Build it 5 Beaches, Krieger wasn’t about to miss out on his first race win of this year’s series this time despite Winklespruit local Gene Prato breathing down his neck throughout.

“It was really nice to get the win! Other than a four to five foot wave at the start, it was quite a long, hard grind out there. The organisers opted for a backline start and the junior double (Brett Evans and Jarryd Gibson) got away really quickly so Gene (Prato) and I tucked in behind them and sat in the slipstream for a bit before I then took the initiative and took up the pull for most of the rest of the way,” he said.

Krieger felt he made a bit of a mistake coming in to the finish, going a bit wide and enabling Gene to get through on his, however this forced him to take a bit of a risk, which paid off.

“I managed to get a fifteen meter gap on him right at the end but as I got to the beach I had extreme dead-leg which resulted in a sprint up the beach that thankfully I managed to win by a meter in the end,” he added.

For women's race winner Arthur, her back-to-back victories will give her good confidence ahead of next weekend’s series feature race – the FNB Durban Downwind – as she looks to take on some of the sport’s top female competitors, including a resurgent Michelle Burn (Fenn Kayaks) who claimed a win of her own this weekend when she reigned supreme in Mauritius.

Young Evans and Gibson make light work of the rest of the doubles pairings to claim the category’s victory over Ross and Bruce Poacher while Skye Prato – father of singles runner-up Gene Prato – and Alastair Caddick finished third.

The series fifth and final race, the FNB Durban Downwind, next weekend will be on either Saturday 11 or Sunday 12 July depending on when the wind is expected to be most suitable. Visit: www.durbandownwind.co.za