Paddlers took to the water for the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon, in theheld Cradock area, recently.
The race saw paddlers travelling from the Grassridge Dam down 80km of wild white water river rapids, filled with technical twists and tricky turns through trees, as well as numerous high, steep, fast flowing chutes over weirs.
This exciting, adrenalin-filled river race attracts over a 1 000 river paddlers, including internationals.
Numerous paddlers from the Victoria Lake Club, based at Germiston Lake, participated in the event, with Richard Cele finishing 62nd overall.
He completed the race in a time of five hours and 50 minutes over the two days, cementing his place in the top 100 paddlers.
Young Colin Ledwaba was the next canoeist from the club to finish, coming in 66th in the K1, while Katiso Hlahatsi was the club’s third K1 finisher, in 117th position.
Uwe Schmidthaus finished 140th in the K1, coming in fourth in the sub-master, while Collen Gibbs was 149th in the K1 and 22nd in the veteran age category.
Numerous partnerships enjoyed the event more as a social and recreational outing than the competitive K1s did.
Some of the newer paddlers at the club also enjoyed the easier, shorter course available in preparation for next year.
It was certainly a very successful and enjoyable long weekend for the Germiston Lake-based paddlers.
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