A Dusi crown to savour for Birkett and Kime
You forget that everyone is tired on the final day, said Birkett.
A FLAWLESS three days of racing from Andy Birkett and Lance Kime resulted in a combined eighth FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon crown for the pair as Birkett registered his sixth and Kime his second title at Blue Lagoon in Durban on Saturday, 20 February.
Having built up a healthy eight-and-a-half minute lead going into the final day, the Euro Steel pair had the title at their mercy following two sublime days of paddling, but getting to the finish on the final day was a slog, despite the absence of an immediate challenger.
“You forget that everyone is tired on the final day,” said Birkett.
With the current drought being a dominant topic in the build-up to the race, the lack of time spent on the river was a problem for the paddlers, however the weather gods dished up a variety of conditions over the three days.
“Conditions-wise, I think we got the opposite to what we actually expected. In the build-up we didn’t have much of a chance to get on the river and trip a lot but the bit of decent water on day one made things easier than we were expecting.
We were expecting super low, super-hot conditions on day one but we got the opposite, and then we got the opposite of that on day two, – Birkett added.
With the winners clocking up a ten minute winning margin the most interesting aspect of the men’s race was the battle for second.
The contest ebbed and flowed through the majority of the final day, with Hank McGregor and Jasper Mocké making a navigational error that gave Sbonelo Khwela and Banetse Nkhoesa a sniff, which made the race much more interesting.
“We took it easy on the downhill of Burma Road and didn’t want to twist an ankle or anything, but when we got to the bottom I think I had a lapse of concentration and took a wrong path, when Sbonelo and Banetse went past us.
“After the put-in we knew that we had to break their mojo and when we passed them we realised that we knew how tired we were because we didn’t pass them as quickly as we thought, which just showed how strong they were,” McGregor added.
Summary of results of the 2016 FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon stage three (iNanda Dam to Blue Lagoon):
Men
1. Andy Birkett/Lance Kime 2:19.15 7:52.09
2. Hank McGregor/Jasper Mocké 2:21.52
3. Sbonelo Khwela/Banetse Nkhoesa 2:19.15 8:03.02
4. Alan Houston/Andrew Houston (U23) 2:27.08 8:10.15
U23 men
1. Alan Houston/Andrew Houston 2:27.08 8:10.15
2. Mmeli Cele/Khumbulani Nzimande 2:30.04 8:33.13
3. Murray Haw/James Speed 2:31.50 8:40.17
U18 Men
1. Mpilo Zondi/Mark Keeling 2:48.32 9:37.11
2. Emanuel Zaloumis/Hamish Lovemore 2:51.46 9:56.01
3. Lethokuhle Luthuli/Mongezi Thusi 2:49.41 9:58.32
U16 Boys
1. Warren Yoko/Craig Pitt 3:10.39 11:32.45
