Willie wins masters, but says race was a wake-up call
There's no resting on his laurels for Willie Kunz.
DESPITE winning the grand masters category at the Ozzie Gladwin race last weekend, Willie Kunz still feels he and his fellow South Coast paddlers Rudi Bense and Shadrack Mkhize have plenty of work to do ahead of next year’s Dusi.
Willie won the grand masters category in a time of 2:39:26 from Nigel Briggs, with Roy Huntley not far behind.Shadrack and Rudi’s times were 2:4:06 and 2:51:12 respectively.
“The race was a big wake-up call for all three of us as to the levels of fitness required for Dusi and while we have been running we need to step up running with the boats,” said Willie.
The three canoeists travelled to Albert Falls dam and the upper Umgeni last Sunday to compete in what is one of South Africa’s premier one day canoe races.
It features as the KwaZulu-Natal K1 river champs and takes on a typical Dusi format, with a 4-5km sprint across the dam and then a short run of about 2-3km across the dam wall before putting into the upper Umgeni for an 18km river paddle.
The race started at 9am with A batch, followed by 10 minute intervals between batches.
Shadrack was first off in A batch followed by Rudi in C batch at 9.20am. Willie was batched in D at 9.30am by which time the sun was already cooking.
“I believe temperatures at the finish were in the region of 33 degrees,” he said.
The race was ultimately won by Andrew Birkett in a time of 2:01:47.
