Canoeists tame the Duzi
Roger Mortlock of Lowveld Canoe Club came 33rd overall and 31st in the K1 class at the Dusi Canoe Marathon which took place last weekend on the Msundusi and Mgeni rivers between Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
Mortlock also won the Elands Sappi 3338 Canoe race that took place at the beginning of February.
Mortlock and Ant Baird finished in the top 100 which was a remarkable achievement.
Baird was 59th overall and fifth in the sub-masters’ category. He came 56th in the K1 category.
Wihan Venter had an excellent race. He had no problems and no swims and finished 156th overall and 137th in K1.
All the Lowvelders who started the Dusi, completed the race.
“Some took double the time of others but as Paul Hay used to say, ‘there’s no remarks column’. Well done to all. Robert Moxham and his partner completed the race in the 819th position and they were the 389th in the K2. They had a very long day two and had to do some repairs after the Ngomeni Hill portage. But they were in good spirit and had a very good and incident-free day three,” said local paddler, Eric Dixon.
The father and son team of Mike and Jared Adams also had a good day and made history with Mike completing his 30th and Jared his first Dusi.
They finished 560th overall and 223rd in K2.
Dixon was the last Lowvelder to finish the K1 race. He claimed 444th overall position and the 288th in K1 after he had a horrible day two, breaking his paddle one kilometre before the confluence.
The dam section was harder than ever and the team was a little more tired than expected.
JC Kriek and Hylton Cruse had a great race overall and had a blaster on the last day. They finished overall 339th and 110th in K2.
Craig Lewis had a good day one but on day two he broke the nose at Gauging Weir which cost him time. He finished 214 overall and 174th in K1.
