Father and son shine at the SA K1 river championships

The South African K1 River Championships took place at the Liebensbergvlei River on September 11.

The river was identified as the South African K1 River Championship race for 2021.

The river originates from the melted snow of the Lesotho Highlands Project and is pumped into the Ash River near Clarens where some turbulent white water rafting takes place.

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The river flows through Bethlehem as the Liebensbergvlei and through Reitz and Tweeling, to the junction with the Wilge at Frankfort.

The waters continue to flow into the Vaal Dam.

Among the achievers was young Liam Stewart who finished seventh across the line against steep competition from other provinces, as the second u-23 in a time of 1 hour 58 minutes.

His father, Michael Stewart, traditionally the top East Rand finisher at events for many years, followed to cross the finish line in 2 hours 2 minutes as the first master, securing his selection to the SA K1 Champs team, and 16th overall, while Mike Barry finished as fourth as the sub grandmaster finisher in a time of 2 hours 18 minutes.

Although the water is generally icy cold with cold breezes sweeping through the Free State farmlands, it is an exciting river with long wave trains, bumpy rapids, some tricky technical exciting ones to negotiate as well as around corners.

The 33km section from Reitz Water Works, to the little town of Tweeling and the farm called Zorgvliet, is well worth the drive from Florida, Albeit three hours each way due to roadworks.

Contact the newsroom by emailing: 
Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za,  or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za