Local paddles his way into third place
The Lowveld Canoe Club's Gustav Smook placed third at the ICF Canoe Marathon Championships in Oklahoma.
Wednesday at 18:35 the paddlers set off for six laps and five portages, over 22,5 kilometres. Smook raced in the age group 45-49 and there were 11 entries from all over the world. After the first lap, he led the bunch of five paddlers. After the second lap, he was first out of the water and the bunch was reduced to three paddlers.
These stayed together for the next two laps.
After the third portage Smook had a swim when he was getting back onto the water after the portage.
From the commentary he was 100m behind the first two boats. At the next portage the local canoe rider was 32 seconds behind, and during the last portage he was 55 seconds behind with only 1km to go. His hard work and extreme commitment paid off and be sure he will be back to race for gold in the World Championships in South Africa in 2016.
The race was won by Victor Manuel Aller Alonso (Spain) in 01:47:19 and second was Jan Malherbe (Canada) in 01:47:21. Smook’s time was 01:48:41.
