Zondi claims Dusi double
The 2014 Dusi K2 winner took the title, along with partner, Hank McGregor.
RECENTLY crowned 2014 Dusi Canoe Marathon champion Sbonelo Zondi’s fairytale KwaZulu-Natal river marathon season continued on Friday 28 February when he and triple Canoe Marathon World Champion Hank McGregor claimed a commanding victory in the exhausting Non-Stop Dusi Canoe Marathon.
Having clinched this year’s Dusi title just two weeks’ ago with EuroSteel partner Andy Birkett, Zondi again showed why he is regarded as one of the top emerging stars on the Msunduzi and Mngeni Rivers as his and Kayak Centre/Team Jeep’s McGregor’s efforts handed Zondi a rare Dusi and Non-Stop Dusi double.
“It is just unbelievable to have won both the Dusi and the Non-Stop Dusi this year. I’m especially happy because Andy (Birkett) and I worked so, so hard before Dusi and so it’s really nice to enjoy the rewards now! I would also like the thank Hank for agreeing to be my partner right at the last minute as well as our seconding crew, without them we probably would have been tempted to have pulled out at some point today,” said a thrilled Zondi afterwards.
For McGregor, who took the event by storm in 2006 when he became the first person to win in a K1, the win is his second Non-Stop Dusi title.
“It is really hard to explain how much pain we went through, especially going over Burma Road portage. It was an honour to paddle with Sbonelo. He was just so strong and now I know exactly why he won the Dusi this year, he deserved it! To have only paddled together for the first time on Thursday night at five o’clock and then to come here and win, it’s a really awesome feeling,” said McGregor.
Having had Lance Kime and Thulani Mbanjwa close the gap between themselves and McGregor and Zondi to just twenty seconds at the bottom of the Nqumeni Hill portage, McGregor and Zondi knew they were going to have to dig deep in order to shake their rivals.
Despite the valley’s heat, a medium to low water level convinced McGregor and Zondi to make the brave decision to run the notorious Burma Road portage, a decision which reaped its rewards but not without much suffering along the way.
Despite having finished over twelve minutes behind the leaders, second placed Kime and Mbanjwa put in a stellar effort and pushed the leaders for much of the first half of the contest.
The runners-up also had their struggles throughout the long day with their perennial lean returning to make their race even tougher.
The women’s race was a ding-dong battle for much of the early part of the encounter as the Adie twins, Abby and Alex, went up against Robyn Kime in her K1.
The Adies however managed to edge ahead for the first time at Mission Rapid and, aided by Kime picking up a hole in the bottom of her boat, managed to steadily pull away and make the title their own.
Having only just behind the mixed doubles category winners Jacques and Jen Theron, Alex denied they were racing against the Therons at any stage despite it being such a close contest in the end.
The pre-race banter between the mixed doubles entrants added a little extra motivation for the top crews with the Therons chuffed to have beaten Shaun Griffin and Hilary Bruss across the line.
Having started out ranked by many behind the likes of Non-Stop Dusi K1 hardy annuals Marc Germiquet and Mark Mulder, Wilson started cautiously but a strong push up the tough Cabbage Tree portage say him into second place, behind K1 leader Siboniso Shozi.
A last minute surge five kilometers before the finish line eventually saw Wilson head past Shozi and to his first Non-Stop Dusi finish.
The ‘Dusi in a day’ sees paddlers make their way from Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg to Blue Lagoon in Durban, along a similar route to that of the iconic Dusi Canoe Marathon, in just a single day. More info can be found at www.nonstopdusi.co.za
