Paddling along the Two Day Klip River race
The first canoe club established in Transvaal, was the Johannesburg Canoe Club (JCC), based at Wemmer Pan, in the South.
For 72 years, the members of the club have arranged races, training and seeding opportunities for the racing kayakers in Gauteng, formerly Transvaal.
On January 25, the club hosted the annual Two Day Klip River Race, from Daleside, through Henley on Klip, to Meyerton.
This covers a distance of some 33km, with a 3km portage, where paddlers take their boats out of the water and run, walk or crawl, a few km to get back in the water again after the Henley Weir, where the high water levels from heavy rainfalls in the previous weeks washed over creating a potential danger.
The water levels were high and enjoyable but not as huge as previous January, nonetheless, the paddlers made the best opportunity to enjoy the river race which would be used as a seeding and training race for the upcoming Dusi River Race.
The Dusi is the world’s toughest endurance canoe race, from Pietermaritzburg to Durban and will take place from February 17 to 19.
The first boat across the finish line after two days of furious fighting white water rapids, brought in top East Rand paddlers from Benoni, Michael and his son Liam Stewart in 3:34 minutes for both days, while the first Sowetan pair crossed the finish line five minutes later with Benjamin Mntoninthsi and Wongama Makasi as the first u-23 pair.
Chazani Gumede and Mlungisi Hlongwane from Soweto and Natal respectively finished next in 3:47 minutes counting both days.
The first juniors to finish were young paddlers from St Davids Marist College, Inanda, Sandton, who are coached at Emmarentia Dam, at the Dabulamanzi Canoe Club, in a time of 3:50 minutes for the two days.
Only two ladies participated in the fast-flowing river, Shelley Robertson from Centurion, in a K3 (three men Kayak) partnered with Warren McKenzie, and Moshe Nghomane, who are members at Florida Lake Canoe Club, based in Roodepoort and they finished the two days in a time of 4:46 minutes.
Sylvia Nel from Parys on the Vaal River also enjoyed participating in the race partnered with Centurions’ John Greeff, to finish in 5:29 minutes.
They had lots of fun as can be seen from the smiles and grins on the races.
