Paddlers take on the river

Paddlers were excited to brave the white water rapids of the Standard Bank One Day Liebensbergvlei River Race which took place on November 21.

Jennie Dallas, Gauteng Canoe Union spokesperson, said the participants started at the Reitz Water Treatment Centre, and finished in Tweeling, a 33km distance to the Zorgvliet farm.

“The Liebensbergvlei River continues to flow towards Frankfort and ultimately empties into the Vaal Dam.

“The water originates from Ash River in Clarens, where it is pumped from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which is often chilly with melted snow.”

Dallas said a number of paddlers from the Victoria Lake Canoe Club based in Germiston Lake trekked to the Free State to enjoy the wave trains, rapids and fast flow of clean clear water through the farmlands and empty spaces.

“They craved the excitement of the river after the long lockdown.

“Richard Cele, coach at VLC club, partnered with the young talented Helen Jansen van Vuuren. Both paddlers from Germiston were the first club members to finish the race in a time of 2 hours 17 minutes, as the second Mixed Double boat and 7th double K2 overall.

“Numerous other VLC club members enjoyed participating in the event. Warren Stead partnered with Anthony Wald and finished in a time of 2 hours 28 minutes as the 20th K2,” she said.

Dallas added that Ryan Booysen used his river experience to partner with a novice Jannie Oosthuizen to finish in 2 hours 34 minutes, followed by Zac Zacharopoulos and Tim Baker in 2 hours 37 minutes.

“Roelof Greyling and Anthony Welsh enjoyed the race, finishing in 2 hours 48 minutes as the 30th K2 boat to cross the finish line while Uwe Schmidthaus with his young son, Kelby, finished in 3 hours 2 minutes, followed by Robert and Dominic Hamer finishing two minutes later.”

Contact the newsroom by emailing: Marietta Lombard (Editor) germistoncitynews@caxton.co.za,  or (Journalists) Busi Vilakazi busiv@caxton.co.za , and Lebogang Sekgwama lebogangs@caxton.co.za.