Additional prize pool set for SA surfski champs in Durban this weekend
The R2000 bonus will be awarded to the winning male or female, depending on the percentage difference between their finishing times.
AS the cream of the country’s surfski paddlers prepare to head to Durban this weekend for the Fenn SA Surfski Champs, the elite race has been spiced up by the introduction of a new handicap prize for the fastest male or female paddler.
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Backed by the popular Wild Dog online coaching platform, the R2000 bonus will be awarded to the winning male or female, depending on the percentage difference between their finishing times.
“We have gone through all the equations based on past results and we have agreed that the winning male paddler would have to finish 85 per cent or faster of the winning women’s time,” said 2017 surfski world champion and Durban North resident, Hayley Nixon, one of the drivers behind Wild Dog training group.
“So if the women’s winner finishes in 60 minutes, then the men’s winner will need to finish in 51 minutes or faster to win the prize, failing which it goes to the women’s winner,” she explained.
Nixon said that the new incentive was intended to spice up the race, which has already attracted a healthy entry of elite and recreational surfski paddlers.
“First and foremost it is a fun exercise designed to add some value to the event,” she said. “It will give the top paddlers a new incentive and it will make it exciting for the spectators as well.
“It is a new dimension for a surfski race. We don’t want paddlers to get too wound up on the details and overthink it but rather just see it as a fun extra element to the racing,” said Nixon.
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