Day One drama leaves Berg River Canoe marathon field shaken up
Zonquadsdrift – After a day of cutthroat racing on a full and fast
flowing river the contenders for the overall title in the Berg
River Canoe marathon were whittled down to three paddlers, while
the women's race was blown wide open by a series of disasters that
befell the pre-race favourite Robyn Kime.
The 22 year old Milnerton star Lance King claimed the overall lead
at the end of the 62 kilometer stage from Paarl to Zonquasdrift
outside Gouda, with 2001 champ and race record holder Graeme
Solomon, and defending champ Hank McGregor right on his rudder.
Solomon was central to the drama that unfolded on the stage, and
ended the day isolated from his three team mates in the lucrative
new team competition. It was his explosive break at the enforced
portage around the low level bridge at Skooltjie that splintered
the big bunch of front runners, reducing the leading bunch to just
four paddlers.
Of those four Solomon was the only member of Team Roamer Rand,
while the other, McGregor, King and Pieter-Willem Basson are all
members of the rival team Epic, and the team dynamic resulted in
plenty of jostling and competitiveness on the water.
Solomon made a break at an expected tree block just above Hermon
with only Basson close to him. However with Basson’s loyalties to
his team mates being obvious in his lack of interest in staging a
breakaway, Solomon was happy to bide his time to make sure he
finished on the front bunch.
“It was pretty technical for much of the day and quite competitive
at times,” said Solomon. “It was important to get rid of one of the
other three today, and I think we are in for an interesting race
from here because both Hank (McGregor) and Lance (King) want to win
it, and even though they are in the same team I don’t think they
will be too cosy.”
Solomon will be relying on the long third stage when the race
regroups and starts in a massed start, when he will be able to
count on his team mates for what may well turn out to be the
decisive day in the race’s overall outcome.
The women’s race was turned on it’s head when the race leader Robyn
Kime’s great start disintegrated in a series of disasters.
Shortly before Gensplaas she took a wrong channel and got lost,
having to crash through trees and brambles to get back into the
main channel. In her haste to regain the lead she made another
mistake and raced into a closed channel that forced her out of her
boat to rejoin the main flow of the river.
Those two blunders cost her six minutes, and in the latter stages
she made good headway into that deficit before she paddled over a
branch that she expect to bend. “Mistake! It didn’t bend and
chucked me out of my boat,” said Kime.
Her miseries didn’t end there either, as she ran out of juice and
hour and half from the end of the stage after missing her seconds.
“Pretty much everything that could go wrong did go wrong today,”
said the gutsy first year Maties student.
Lindi-May Harmsen made fewer mistakes on the day and will relish
her four and a half minute lead going into the short 45km second
stage from Zonquasdrift to Bridgetown.
The race started in near perfect river conditions in Paarl, and the
paddlers gradually caught up with the floodwaters that rushed
through Paarl on Monday. “There is no doubt that it will get fuller
and fuller and the race progresses because all the tributaries are
charging,” said Solomon.
“The river was very user friendly today as it was pretty much still
in it’s banks,” he added. “But as we go further downstream it will
be over its banks and is when it gets interesting.”
More information can be found at
www.berg.org.za
Ends
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
BERG RIVER CANOE MARATHON DAY ONE
1. Lance King 3:53:11
2. Graeme Solomon 3:53:15
3. Hank McGregor 3:53:19
4. Pieter-Willem Basson 3:53:23
5. Pierre Andre Rabie 4:03:11
6. Ernest van Riet 4:03:12
7. Heinrich Schloms 4:03:13
8. Andrew Birkett 4:03:14
9.
Edgar Boehm Jnr 4:03:20
10.Nick Longley 4:07:14
WOMEN:
1. Lindi-May Harmsen 4:28:05
2. Jenna Hofmeyer 4:32:38
3. Robyn Kime 4:32:39
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Link to the 2008 Media stories
Link to the 2007 Media stories
