The South African K1 River Championship race took place on Saturday, 11 September, with few women from Gauteng participating in single K1 kayaks. However, the winning woman, Christie Mckenzie from Johannesburg, made her mark on the event. Sylvia Nel from Parys was the only woman finisher in the Sub Grand Master age category – 15th female overall, in a time of 3 hours and 19 minutes. The race took place on a 33 km section of the Liebenbergsvlei river from Reitz Water Works to Tweeling and the farm called Zorgvliet.

The Liebensbergvlei 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. The river flows through Bethlehem at the Liebenbergsvlei, and through Reitz and Tweeling, to the junction with the Wilge at Frankfort. Water then continues to flow into the Vaal dam. 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 and technically very exciting to negotiate with. Sylvia frequently trains on the Vaal river section in the Parys area and is comfortable and well experienced with rapids and rocks while kayaking.