Junior VLC paddler shines in first river race

VLC paddlers excel in recent river race.

Richard Cele (a coach at Victoria Lake Canoe Club, front) partnered with junior Helen Jansen van Vuuren for her first river race last Sunday.

A heatwave hit Gauteng just in time for the Klip to Vaal River Race which took place last Sunday.

The event was hosted by the Johannesburg Canoe Club based at Wemmer Pan, in Johannesburg South.

The race took place from Danie Maclean Park in Meyerton, to finish at the Watuni Canoe Club, on the North West University grounds in Vanderbijlpark, a distance of some 28km.

The course featured a few major rapids, a wide number of obstacles, tight, hard-working, winding corners in fast flowing current and a number of bubblies (little wave trains and currents).

Helen Jansen van Vuuren (second from left) at the recent Gauteng Canoe Union School League prize-giving.

Coupled with this was a 12km stretch of tough, hard-working, sluggish Vaal River.

Helen Jansen van Vuuren, a junior member learning to canoe at Victoria Lake Canoe Club (VLC), who has been achieving well in the Gauteng Canoe Union School League monthly races, also took part in the race.

At the recent Gauteng Canoe Union School League prize-giving, which took place at Homestead Dam, in Benoni, Jansen van Vuuren won the u-14 girls’ category with 162 points earned from junior league races at various dams across Gauteng.

She also won the Top Paddler of the Year 2018 – K1 Girls, as well as the Most Improved Female for the Year.

With the confidence achieved from racing on dams which can get windy and choppy, Jansen van Vuuren was attracted to the excitement and adventure of river racing.