GALLERY: Dusi crown for Birkett and Kime
Winners of the FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon were cheered in by a large crowd of supporters at Blue Lagoon on Saturday.
A FLAWLESS three days of racing from Andy Birkett and Lance Kime resulted in a combined eighth FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon crown for the pair as Birkett registered his sixth and Kime his second title at Blue Lagoon in Durban on Saturday.
Having built up a healthy eight-and-a-half minute lead going into the final day, the Euro Steel pair had the title at their mercy following two sublime days of paddling but getting to the finish on the final day was a slog despite the absence of an immediate challenger.
“You forget that everyone is tired on the final day. Everyone is racing on tired bodies because the racing on day one and day two is really tough. You push it to the limit on those first two days which means that you need to keep your momentum on day three and try and not let the pace dip for too long,” Birkett said after their win.
With the current drought being a dominant topic in the build-up to the race the lack of time spent on the river was a problem for the paddlers however the weather gods dished up a variety of conditions over the three days.
“Conditions wise, I think, we got the opposite to what we actually expected. In the build-up we didn’t have much of a chance to get on the river and trip a lot but the bit of decent water on day one made things easier than we were expecting. We were expecting a super low, super-hot conditions on day one but we got the opposite but then we got the opposite of that on day two!, Birkett smiled. “We got a hot day and not an excess amount of water so day two was some really tough racing,” Birkett added.
With the winners clocking up a 10 minute winning margin the most interesting aspect of the men’s race was the battle for second.
The contest ebbed and flowed through the majority of the final day with Hank McGregor and Jasper Mocké making a navigational error that gave Sbonelo Khwela and Banetse Nkhoesa a sniff that made the race much more interesting.
Khwela and Nkhoesa’s trump card on day three was always going to be the notorious Burma Road portage and it proved to be just that for the Euro Steel/Red Bull duo however it was always going to be a difficult task for the pair to hold off the former marathon world champions.
McGregor and Mocké took second place, followed by Khwela and Nkhoesa.
The U18 prize went to Mphilo Zondi and Mark Keeling who decimated the rest of the junior field to win by over 18 minutes over Emanuel Zaloumis and Hamish Lovemore.
After dominating the first two days of the 2016 FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon, Abby Solms and Anna Kožíšková duly wrapped up their maiden victory in the race as the focus of the final day’s racing shifted to the battle for second place on the final day on Saturday.
After finishing as the runner-up six times, Solms finally added the only major river title in South Africa that was missing from her outstanding record, while Kožíšková became the first foreign winner of the FNB Dusi
Despite the fact that they had a more than commanding lead over the rest of the women’s field, Solms found the going difficult on the final day.
“It was down to our hard work, experience and preparation that we had such a smooth race. Nothing went wrong today. It was just a hard day because of the conditions that we were faced with,” Solms said.
Tamika Haw and Alex Adie, Abby Solms’ twin sister, duelled it out with the schoolgirls Cana Peek and Kyeta Purchase, managing to take second place.
After a fantastic effort Peek and Purchase, both 17 years of age, had to settle for third place.
