Upington and the Orange River hosted the 2025 SA Marathon Champs, with the elite racing snakes vying to represent South Africa in Gyor, Hungary at the World Marathon Championships in September, while others – including many from Dabs, SCARC and the Ridge – were simply there for the experience.
The racing started with the Juniors, then the Guppies, and then the Senior Short Course races on a sunny Friday. A slight breeze and a flowing river meant paddlers took full advantage of the downstream current in the middle, hugging the banks when paddling upstream to the portage – a narrow path excavated on the far bank after floods damaged the specially made island portage.
While the kids from the Cape and KZN dominated the U18 Boys and Girls, Dabs and SCARC paddlers owned the podiums in most younger age groups. In the U8 Guppy Girls Short Course, Aayan Judy claimed Gold, as did Kabo Motene in the U10s. Not surprisingly, Ruoxi Hao easily won the U12 Guppy Boys – paddling most of the race on his own. Ozzy Stead came second and Asher Wilson third, while in the U12 Girls, Amilie Mzolo claimed Gold ahead of Aara Judy and Sipo Lilane. Also as expected, Kyle Armdorf easily won the U14 Boys, with David Miller taking Silver. In the U16 Boys, Danile van Eeden won Silver and Sbu Tyiki took Bronze. Well done guys and girls – you are our future hopes.
Then it was the Senior Short Course races – open to all paddlers from U23 to Grand Masters – with the first two boats earning a spot at Gyor. In the Ladies race were the U23 Jenna Wilson, Seniors Saskia Hockly and Jenna Nisbet, Sub-Vet Nix Birkett, and Veteran Bridget Hartley, along with Cath, Renschi and Gabi representing Dabs. Go Dabs! Saskia was probably the favourite, but she damaged her rudder in the shallows of the put-in and had to withdraw because she couldn’t steer. Going into the final portage it was a 4 boat race, and then down to 3 as Bridget couldn’t close the gap. In the end, Jenna and Nix were on Jade’s wave, with Jade taking the win in what looked like a photo finish between Jenna and Nix – it was exciting stuff!
The men’s Short Course started out with a big bunch of about a dozen contenders but after the first portage it became a 4 boat race with Andy Birkett leading Hamish Lovemore, Clint Cook and Uli Hart. Matt Fenn and Nic Notten chased hard to close the gap but then got dropped again after the second portage. For the last portage the front 4 all had clean take-outs but Andy and Hamish were better on the put-in and with that it became a two boat race with Uli and Clint chasing. In the end Hamish, with his sprinting prowess took the lead and with that he held Andy off to take the win followed by Uli, Clint, Matt and Nic. Somewhat further back we also had Rob Crichton, Matt Ballenden and Stan Frieman out there – Go Dabs!
Saturday brought more wind and more racing, starting out with K1’s for the older men, with the SV, V, SM, M, SGM, GM men doing 18.6km with 5 laps and 4 portages, and the SGGM, GM and 75+ doing 15km with 4 laps and no portages. Here the Dabs paddlers really did dominate the podiums. In the SV’s Robert Crichton took Gold ahead of MJ Robb. In the Vets Mike Arthur took Gold and Ryan Rodda took Bronze, while in the SM’s Ricky Talevi took gold ahead of Mark Garden. In the Masters Piers Cruickshanks won Gold with Matthew Ballenden earning Bronze. Michael Stewart was first in the SGM’s while Graham Monteith just held off Eugene Van der Westhuizen to take Gold in the GM’s – the most contested race of the older age groups. Well done to Monty who was sitting on the fence saying it was a long way to go for a 20km race. Llyode Hanson won the SGGM (and said he was lonely on the podium) while Peter O’Connor won the GGM’s ahead of some KZN and Cape people. Well done Boet, although he tells us he would normally do double the distance in half the time at Emmarentia. In the Women’s racing, Gabi won Gold in the Masters, while Cathleen van Eeden claimed Silver in the Vets.
Next up were the Guppies’ Championship races: Aayan Judy won U8 Boys, Kabo Motene won U10 Boys, Ruoxi won U12 Boys, and Aara Judy took U12 Girls Gold ahead of Amilie Mzolo and Sipho Lilane. The Junior K2s followed: Soyama & Sipheshile won Bronze in U14 Girls, while Kyle & David won the U14 Boys.
Then came the main K1 races. The U23 & Senior Men did 29.7km with 8 laps and 7 portages while the Women did 26km with 7 laps and 6 portages. For the Men’s first lap there were 10 in the front bunch with Andy and Hamish dictating the pace, but where the group is normally broken by the portage, they went away with Uli Hart and Nic Notten dropping the others long before this leaving Clint and Brad in a second bunch with Sam Butcher and Matthew Coetzer. Andy and Hamish always looked strongest, with Nic seeming to get dropped at every portage and then having to grind his way back to up and into the front 4. Clint and Sam appeared to close the gap but after about an hour Clint bailed, presumably to save himself for the K2 race – while Siseko who was somewhat further behind ground on – presumably in Berg training. Then just before the 5th portage, the nose of Andy’s boat went under a reed – he spun out and Uli went into the back of him, (damaging Andy’s boat) and they both ended up swimming leaving Hamish and Nic to get away. Uli got back into his boat in the water (that’s the beauty of the new Nelo’s with bulkheads) but Andy had to swim to the side and duct tape his boat up at the portage spot. Hamish and Nic appeared to wait at the put-in, so Uli got back up to the front, but Andy, knowing his race was done, then joined Siseko and Sam to finish the race. In the end Hamish easily outsprinted Uli to win with Nic finishing 3rd. Matt Coetzer was 4th while Brad was 5th. Notably, this was the first time in about 30 years that the GOAT, Hank didn’t contest the K1’s – instead he and Pippa went to see the Falls – conserving themselves for the K2 day.
The Ladies race was in theory always going to be less dramatic, there were after all only 4 possible contenders in Saskia, Jade, Jenna and Nix – with Renschi being the only other lady on the start line. Go Dabs! For the first few laps it looked like a calm procession between the top 4 until Saskia and Jade dropped Jen and Nix, and it looked like Saskia would win, but again she was unlucky. With a lap to go Saskia couldn’t steer her nice new Nelo (this is not the first time this has happened to a Saffa in Nelo) leaving Jade out in front to take a comfortable win While Nix and Jenna had to battle it out for the second spot to Gyor; which Nix claimed. Well done to Saskia and Renschi for finishing, and as an U23 Saskia did at least get second place in her age group.
Sunday was K2 Day for the older paddlers, then Junior K1 Short Course, then Senior K2s. Where we saw drama in Andy and Uli swimming and where we saw disappointment for Saskia, in the Older Men K2’s we saw comedy – and almost all of this happened in and around the portage. Andy was inside the white bouys, and perhaps too close to the bank, Sakia perhaps put in too shallow in the Short Course, and we saw many slips and several swims either at the takeout or the put in – but none were as bad as our Dabs lads in the K2’s. At one portage 4 boats arrived together. Rob Crichton & MJ took out first, but MJ slipped and did his thing, which left Rob dragging their bright yellow boat alone, blocking everyone else from overtaking on the narrow path while Swemjay was 4 boats back, trying to catch up. At the same takeout Matt Ballenden tried to go over Piers Cruickshanks, almost drowning him, for which Matt was quick to apologize. Then at the put in Matt fell out leaving Coach Adro in tears of laughter, while Mike Authur & Ricci Talevi quietly waited and watched with a smile, but they did all regroup and continue to paddle together – well done boys! In the end Mike & Ricci were strongest winning Gold in the Vets, while Rob & MJ won SV Gold ahead of Ryan Rodda and Sibu Zulu, with Piers Cruickshanks and Mike Stewart winning the Sub Masters ahead of Mark Garen and Matt Ballenden. Monty partnered with Eugene Van der Westhuizen to claim another GM Gold while in the GGM’s Boet & Lloyde also won Gold. Also out on the water, although unofficially, were the Ridge’s Daniel McLachlan with Caden Wilson and a very tired looking Caleb and Warrick van Breda, in an river boat held together with Sthil stickers – well done guys.
In the Ladies, Gabi and Allison Hay won Masters. Only two boats raced the Senior Ladies K2: Saskia & Pippa vs Jade & Jenna; with Jade already having two Golds. While there were a few ‘mock charges’ it always looked like the race would come down to the end sprint, but there was a slight slip on the last portage by team J&J, leaving Saskia & Pippa top make a break after the put in – then J&J almost missed the last buoy – but the damage was done at the portage allowing Saskia & Pippa to take the win. More Gold for the McGregor’s.
In the Senior Men’s K2s, Andy & Hamish were the obvious favourites. Despite only seven boats, it was a fierce 30km race. As expected, Andy & Hamish dominated the 30km race out front with Clint Cook & Nic Notten, Hank & Uli and Shaun Rubenstein & Matt Fenn. After the second portage Hank & Uli and Andy & Hamish made a break and opened up a big gap on the chasing 4 but at the next portage Andy & Hamish stopped to check their pumps and with this Hank & Uli appeared to wait, so we then had a group of 4 with Wayne & Brad along with Mat Coetzer & Ron Benjano chasing to make things back up to a group of 6, but by the 7th and final portage there were only 4 boats in the race. The first to make move were Shaun & Matt – they came out of the diamond on the home run looking for the centre of the river and the fast flowing water, but it appeared they went out too early and couldn’t stay with the first 3 boats which saw Andy & Hamish pulling with Clint & Nic on the one slip and Hank & Uli on the other. It looked like Clint & Nic were going to take Silver until the very last second when Hank & Uli pipped them to the post. What a race.
What a weekend! Well done to Upington and PSA for staging it. Thanks to SuperSport and Waldo van der Linde (get your ergo from Waldo at Stroke2Max – he’s offering massive discounts), and thanks to all, fast and slow, young and old – who showed up.
Speaking of young and old, have you noticed how older racing snakes often team up with younger ones – people half their age? It’s not new. We saw it in river racing when the Pope’s protegee was Kevin White, and more recently multiple Dusi winner Abby Solms partnered with schoolgirl Jess Behn to claim another Dusi title. We saw it in Surfski where Hank partnered with Josh Fenn, some years ago when Josh wasn’t far out of school. And we saw it this weekend in the Marathons with the likes of Wayne & TK, Shaun Ruby & Matt Fenn, Hank & Uli. So who knows – maybe we will see the likes of an older Brad & Ruoxi going up against an older still Clint & Kyle in the not too distant future – with Ryno in the background, busy training for yet another Berg…
That’s right, Berg is coming soon. A few brave men have put their hands up. Have you?