Florida paddlers excel at Gauteng trials
Paddlers excel at big competition
With the World ICF (International Canoe Federation) Marathon Championships being hosted in South Africa this year, there is a huge focus on marathon racing, which consists of long distance races of 22km, including short 100m portages after each lap where the paddlers display their smooth take out of the water, a quick, short run with the boat, and an agile put-back into the water. A slip or dropped boat can lose time at these major events. The take-out and put-in are among the more difficult abilities to master, while speed on both the water and running on land also require good training and practise.
Ekurhuleni Kayak Club, based at Homestead Dam in Benoni, has a superb course and specially set up jetties to enable the portages for these prestigious events. The club hosted the Gauteng Canoe Marathon K1 trials on Saturday 22 July and the K2 trials the following day, where numerous paddlers from as far afield as Lowveld, Parys and Pretoria gathered to pit their skills against each other. Among them were juniors from U/8 to 18 years old.
With a place up for grabs at the SA Marathon Championships next month, the Florida Lake Canoe Club (FLCC) team did well in the races that served as trials to select the team to represent Gauteng in both the K1 and the K2 disciplines. Every FLCC paddler who participated was selected for the Gauteng team.
In the U/12 age group, David Brown finished in second position with a time of 37 minutes and will wear the red Gauteng vest at the SA Marathon event, as will U/12 Ameerah Hank who finished her age-appropriate distance race in 41 minutes. Kamilah Hank was selected for both the U/12 K1 and the K2 (doubles) event having finished in 1:8.
Despite just turning 14 recently, Sisanda Mthabela, competing in the U/16 category, finished her race in 1:43.
Tristan Trican was in top spot in the U/18 section and was named the junior Gauteng champion. He finished the full adult-distance race of 22km in 1:48, securing his position at the SA event, while Moses Nghomane was selected in the U/23 age category.
Shaun Maphanga, who suffered from a bad cold and should not have participated, was selected for the team based on his finishing time of 1:50. Sunday he doubled with Douw Kruger to win the Veterans category in a time of 1:51.
Hardus Theunissen made the team by finishing second in the Sub Grand Master category in 1:58.
The SA champs in August in Pietermaritzburg will be the opportunity for these paddlers to be selected to represent SA at the ICF (International Canoe Federation) World Marathon Championships in September in Pietermaritzburg where a specially designed course with portage jetties to world-standard requirements have been built and tested in the past two years.
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