CANOEIST Willie Kunz has been in pretty good form on the water of late.
He recently competed in the K1 and K2 KwaZulu-Natal and South African Marathon Champs, which were held in Pietermaritzburg.
Pietermaritzburg will be hosting the World Marathon Champs next year, so the events were used as a pre-run to get the venue and the course according to world marathon standards.
Willie took part in both the KZN marathon K1 and K2 champs.
In the K1, he managed a third behind winner Geoff Thompson and his K2 partner for the Sunday K2 race, Nigel Briggs.
“On Sunday things went well and Nigel and I picked up gold,” said Willie.
He said the racing was hard and very competitive.
“Most of the grand masters are old hands at this competitive level and all race micro light Nelo or similar sprint boats. I raced my Dusi boat which weighed in at about 13.5kg, compared to the others that weigh anything from nine to 10kg,” he explained.
“The rules and procedures are world marathon standard so you can’t afford to go wrong for fear of being penalised or disqualified. Racing in our category, grand masters, was four laps with three compulsory portages for both the K1 and K2 race, which amounts to 15.3 km,” he said.
As a result of not having the right boat Willie did not enter the SA K1 race which was disappointing as he would liked to have tested himself against the top paddlers in his age category.
In the K2, he raced with Nigel. After an unbelievably fast race, they had to settle for a silver medal.
“Nigel sat on the diamond for the first four kilometres, with my heart rate ranging between 95 to 110 and getting boat speeds of up to 15.5 km/h,” said Willie.
He is now setting his sights on the world champs next year… provided he can get a competitive K1 boat!
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