The Victoria Lake Canoe Club hosted the VLC Night Race on February 4.
The race was predominantly a K2 15km race with over 51 boats on the water.
The night race also serves as a platform for Dusi participants to refine their last minute Dusi combinations, skills and boats.
Although the race was mainly a K2 event, there were K1 paddlers who had their own race start just five minutes after the K2s.
With vests handed out to entrants, medals for category winners, free meals, and a DG Capital Investment of prize money, the race was bound to be a success.
Michael Stewart and Brandon Collyer won the event and were also first in the Veteran age category in one hour, 10 minutes and 44 seconds, while a fraction of seconds later brought in Alex Roberts and Robert Crichton, in second place.
Thembinkosi Ngcobo and Tom Ngcobo were less than a second behind, to take third place.
It was a very tight finish.
The u-18 team of Siyabonga Tyiki and Simnikiwe Ntondini were fifth overall, only 10 seconds behind the front bunch, and the first Sub-Veterans, Serge van Hee and Jeromy Dacey, finished eighth, in one hour, 12 minutes and 38 seconds.
Tsidiso Bobo and Mfundo Sithole were the first u-23s home, in ninth place, just half a minute later.
The women, Donna Tutton and Jane Swarbreck, raced alone against the men, finishing 15th, in one hour and 14 minutes, while the first mixed double, Richard Cele and Sandra Eardley, finished 19th place in one hour, 15 minutes.
The Sub-Master team of Franz Lottering and Vallon Kupferberg finished as the 23rd K2 team, in one hour and 17 minutes, and the youngest paddler to finish the race was Alex Masina, as the seventh K1 entrant, in one hour and 21 minutes.
Masters winners were Zach Zacharopoulos and Josh Loots, in one hour and 23 minutes.
“This was a great race; it went well, all the paddlers did their best and one can only predict great results at the Dusi,” said the Victoria Lake Canoe Club’s vice-chairman, Dorian Pretorius.
For VLC, the Dusi will be another great way to end the season.
“Our season is coming to end and will start again in April, so we have the Dusi and the Umko Race in March,” said Pretorius.
“The Umko is a big water race, that is more technical, and we are eagerly looking forward to both events.
“We had a great season, with a couple of great races, and we thank our partner, Ekurhuleni, for the support.
“We have a good and long running partnership with them, especially with the night race, and we also appreciate and say thank you to our sponsor.”
Pretorius also told GCN that the new season, commencing in April, is a singles (K1) season, and most of the big races will be singles.
