THE Johannesburg Canoe Club hosted the Vaal River Marathon which was identified as the South Africa K3 River Championship Race over November 11 and 12.
The marathon covered a distance of 36km on the first day and 34 km on the second day. While the weather was particularly pleasant for a change, the Vaal river is still wide, relatively shallow and has a very sluggish flow which made for a resistant river that required hard work and was excellent training for those endurance athletes and those preparing for the Dusi in February.
The race started at the Vaal Dam wall on November 11 and finished in Three Rivers on the Klip River. On the second day, the start venue was the beautiful Cote de Val / Pont de Val resort and the finish was at Smilin’ Thru near Parys. Both resorts offered excellent hospitality and superb facilities.
There are some 10km of white water, rapids, wave trains, weirs and the infamous Visgat rapid at the Groenpunt Prison to enjoy before the long 26km flat hard water slog sorts out the boys from the men! It is a traditional, very old and epic race that toughens up paddlers before the Dusi in February.
The Vaal river is tough and sluggish. Most paddlers prefer to double up for the event; however, Peter Chissano was one of the brave hardy tough canoeists who took it on in a single kayak. Chissano finished the challenging, very exhausting 70km race in 6:35 as the third K1 (Single) finisher and the first u-23 paddler.
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