This was a weekend with a difference in that there were no Racing Snakes from either Dabs or SCARC at either of the river races – despite both being great, and one being a national championship event. On top of this, there were only a few Dabs representatives from the Norman Nobody ranks. We hope that the no to low show was because the Snakes and the Norman’s are all saving their pink tickets and pocket money for the ADG Vaal Marathon.
The SA K1 Champs were held at Orange River Descent, and at the sharp end this was just a two-man race between the Lovemore brothers which ended with the same result as the Liebensberg, with the Olympian Hamish just beating the Berg and Umko winner Tom. Third place went to the SGM from Centurion, some six minutes behind. First home from Dabs was Kevin Hunt and Gavin Thornton, but they were in a K2, so the only other Dabs paddler there, Daryn Koertzen was Dabs’ finest at the SA K1’s – well done DK! These guys may be from the Norman positions, but they go to events for the full package of fun. Check out all the pics on the Orange River Descent Facebook page, and chat to the boys, they will tell you that this is a must do event.
The other race was the Lions River Descent, a K1 river. This is a two-day race starting with 30km from Caversham to Hebron Haven, and then a shorter 16km day from Piggly Wiggly to Midmar Dam, so most of the fun is on day 1. The boys who went to this one will tell you that this too is a must do event. First home from Dabs was young Ethan – he joins the Norman ranks as he didn’t make the top 10 or the U23 podium, although he was a gentleman in that he let Jenna Nisbet beat him. Somewhat further back we had Bryan Slater, Rob Collier and Leon Bartel representing Dabs. Leon came last, mainly due to a broken rudder cable, and it sounds like he is also hooked on the full package of fun.
They didn’t have any pictures to share so here are some of the Upper Umgeni between Wartburg Bridge and Nagle Dam, another great river event that happens in September or October; the point being that there are still great rivers to paddle, for both racing snakes and Norman’s.
This Saturday it’s the ERK Night Race in Benoni which starts at 17:30, and on Sunday it’s the 4hour enduro; registration is from 07h00, racing stats at 08h00 – all of which could be impacted by what happens on Saturday night, what with rugby matches and send offs. Then it’s the Vaal and after that Alexa Godden and her team are running the Dabs Dash 100m shootouts again on Sat 30th November. Racing starts at 9:00.
In upper echelon news, Alexa and Esti Olivier recently represented Canoeing SA along with board members Kim Pople and Nkosi Mzolo at the Athlete’s Indaba held at the SASCOC headquarters. The IOC President Thomas Bach was here on his tour of Africa, where one of the discussions was the possibility of future Olympic Games being held in Africa. Could this be sign a towards new blood within CSA?
That’s all for now. Till next time – Go Dabs!