THE landscape of the Non-Stop Dusi changed on Friday, as both K1 records fell and Nhlanhla Cele claimed a hard-fought overall victory with veteran, Thulani Mbanjwa.
However, the day belonged to Laura O’Donoghue, who added a new women’s K1 Non-Stop record to her maiden Dusi title, which she claimed two weeks ago.
Despite his lack of local wins, Mbanjwa remained positive throughout his dry spell. “It was so sweet to win a big race again. I worked hard before Dusi and felt really fit a week before Non-Stop, so I gave Nhlanhla a call, and I’m so glad I did. Nhlanhla was strong the whole way, and I’m so happy for him too, he really deserves this result,” said Mbanjwa.
The result was a career highlight for 27-year-old Cele, whose previous best performance was a Non-Stop third place with his brother Richard back in 2011. However, his first Non-Stop win came in a dominant display as they led from start to finish.
Some hair-raising moments, and the expected phases of physical and mental fatigue along the way, saw a cat-and-mouse affair unfold behind them as Euro Steel/Red Bull’s Khwela and Euro Steel’s Lance Kime closed the gap, dropping off the pace throughout.
After Kime ‘hit the wall’ halfway across Inanda Dam it was a two-horse race, and Khwela ran the Burma Road portage like a man possessed, narrowing the gap to just half a minute in the dying stages.
In the end it was Mbanjwa and Cele who were just too strong for Khwela’s charging K1 as they floated into Blue Lagoon in Durban.
With a maiden Dusi title under her belt after her resounding effort in the three-day clash two weeks ago, O’Donoghue returned to annihilate the previous women’s K1 record, set by Robyn Kime in 2012, by well over 10 minutes on Friday.
First-placed mixed doubles crew, Ben Bradford and Natasha Bulbring, dug deep in an attempt to finish inside the race’s top 10. However, the pair fell just short after they wrapped their boat at Tops Needle, but still ended as the first mixed doubles crew.
For more information visit www.nonstopdusi.co.za.
