UCT paddlers finish strong

Article courtesy of Ant Lake:
UCT finished strong in this year’s Fish River Canoe Marathon and ended up having a boat in 4th and 5th overall, 1st U23 men, 2nd U23 woman, and 8th overall in woman.The weekend of the 27th and 28th September saw 20 of UCTs canoeists, powered by Futurelife, heading to Cradock in the Eastern Cape to take part in the 2013 Fish River Canoe Marathon, which doubles as SA K2 River Canoe Marathon Champs and USSA Canoe Champs. This is a two day event, covering 82km, has some of the most exciting rapids in the country, as well as the biggest party. A field of over 800 boats take to the water to compete this event. This year had a very strong field, including the three time and current World Canoe Marathon Champion Hank Mcgregor, World Surfski Champion Sean Rice, U23 World Canoe Marathon Gold and Silver Medalists, Andy Birkett and Brandon van der Walt, Olympic Bronze Medalist Bridgette Hartley and Dusi Champions Lance and Robyn Kime, as well as a host of International White Water paddlers.

Day 1, held on Friday 27th, is a 48km stretch, and includes the fearsome Keith’s Flyover rapid. The top seeded UCT crews of Stu Maclaren (paddling with Brandon van der Walt of UKZN), Ben Biggs (paddling with World Student games K2 1000m finalist Ali Glass) and Murray Burgess and Shanti Stewart set off in the first batch of 50 boats at 7am. An unusually strong wind was blowing, and this caught most of the top unawares, as the usually flat 2km sprint across Grassridge dam, where paddlers don’t usually seal their boats due to an impending portage, was turned into a bumpy cauldron of waves, with many boats getting swamped. Maclaren/van der Walt’s boat filled with water, causing them to get assistance from a rescue boat and empty halfway across the dam, after this delay, they ended up coming off the water last in the batch. Meanwhile, Biggs/Glass had a stormer and were one of the first boats out the water. A strong portage allowed them to put into the river near the top of the field.

At the close of day 1, Biggs/Glass had managed to pull into second position overall, a few minutes behind threee times defending champion crew of Hank Mcgregor and Grant van der Walt. Maclaren/van der Walt incredibly came across the line in 4th, and 1st U23, a herculean effort of passing 45 boats given their initial problems. Burgess/Stewart came across the line in 25th position, and lying 7th in U23. In the ladies race, Kirsten Gelderblom (UCT) and Kim van Gysen was sitting in 10th position overall at the end of day 1, with Anna Notten and Candice Murray (both UCT) coming in 2nd in U23.

Day 2 is a much shorter stage of 34km. There longer stretches of flat water, ideally for bunch racing, but in the second half of the race is where it is won and lost. Three large weirs block the paths of the paddlers and a swim at any of these obstacles can ruin a race.
Day 2 started with the top boats leaving in elapsed time format. Mcgregor/van der Walt left first, with by a 4 minute gap between themselves and the second crew. The next 4 boats were each about 40 seconds apart, meaning that whichever crew could catch the boat in front was likely to be the strongest throughout the day. After about 10km, the 5th placed boat of International Whitewater paddlers Tobias Bong and Tomas Slovak caught the crew of Maclaren/van der Walt. At roughly the same time, the third place crew of five times Fish River Marathon K1 champion Len Jenkins and SA Canoe sprint team member Greg Louw caught the crew of Biggs/Glass.

The International crew carried on storming through the field, past the second placed bunch and into second place themselves. Jenkins/Louw then also broke from Biggs/Glass to hunt down second place.
Five kilometers from the finish in the famous Cradock weir, where all the supporters gather to watch the paddlers drop down a 2 meter wall of water. This is the make and break point of the race, as a swim here leaves paddlers with very little distance to make up the lost time. Unfortunately, this happened to Biggs/Glass, and Maclaren/van der Walt took the gap into fourth place.

The final results have Maclaren/van der Walt in 4th place and first U23, Biggs/Glass in 5th and Burgess/Stewart in 28th. In the ladies, Gelderblom/van Gysen ended 8th and Notten/Murray ended 2nd U23. Overall, UCT placed 2nd University in the mens and 3rd in the ladies.