Victoria Lake Canoe Club (VLC), based at Germiston Lake, hosted a 24km training canoe race for Gauteng paddlers preparing for the popular major national Hansa Fish River Marathon, on Saturday, August 24.
The marathon takes place in the Eastern Cape, in September, and there are other major events scheduled as the canoe season enters its peak in the summer months.
Despite the spring warmth of recent weeks, the day of the race brought cold, windy, overcast weather to the lake, creating great waves, troughs and gusts of wind which caused some swims in the chilly water, with misty conditions around the lake – excellent training with resistance.
Fortunately, the sun managed to creep through the misty, low clouds by midday, when the juniors from the ages of eight to 18 raced their age appropriate race distances after the main adult race.
More than 100 paddlers participated in the races, despite the miserable morning conditions, attracted, no doubt, by support received from the Ekurhuleni Department of Sports and Recreation, as well as some private additional sponsors, including prize money for winning categories, T-shirts, caps, hot meals, cool drinks and lucky draw prizes.
As the upcoming major races on the canoe calendar are identified as K2 (doubles) events, the majority of paddlers participated with partners, for training purposes, if available.
With the top two winning doubles bringing in Soweto paddlers, as well as Gauteng juniors in the third podium position, the Canoe Union is pleased with the progress of the their programmes for the development of juniors, as well as for previously disadvantaged sportsmen.
The top finishers from the Germiston Lake paddlers were cousins Roland and Gregory Smith in one hour 54 minutes, two minutes behind the leaders, while u-23 local youths from the club, Colin Ledwaba and Katiso Hlahatsi, finished as the 11th doubles in two hours nine minutes.
U-18 club member Spoon Mkhuzangwe, from Germiston High School, was an impressive finisher in a single canoe, battling the waves and wind to finish as the fourth single and first u-18 junior, in two hours 15 minutes, going on to win the junior league school race that took place after the main race, adding 10km to his 24km earlier event, proving his worthiness to participate in the major out-of-town national river races to be hosted later in the year, as the season reaches its peak.
