Birkett and Mackenzie claim Dusi titles
Andy Birkett and Christie Mackenzie lead from Day 1 of the Dusi Canoe Marathon.
DUSI Canoe Marathon pre-race favourites, Andy Birkett and Christie Mackenzie, claimed the men’s and women’s title races respectively when they both powered through to the finish line at Blue Lagoon on Saturday.
Birkett claimed his 13th title while uMhlanga’s Mackenzie became only the third woman to wrap up a hat-trick of K1 Dusi Victories.
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Mackenzie won the last two women’s K1 titles in 2019 and 2021 and has now joined the original Dusi queen, Marlene Lowenstein, who won four back-to-back K1 women’s titles between 1987 and 1993, and Abbey Ulansky, who won three on-the-trot between 2005 and 2009.
Leading up to the Dusi, Mackenzie showed her class by winning her maiden N3TC Drak Challenge and before the Dusi, both the K1 Kindo Covers Dash ’n Crash and the Kayak Craft Campbell’s to Dusi Bridge races.
Completing the men’s podium were Msawenkosi Mtolo and U23 David Evan, and Bridgitte Hartley and Jordan Peek rounded up second and third respectively in the women’s race.
The third and final stage of the Dusi Canoe Marathon took paddlers 36km from Msinsi Resort at Inanda Dam to Blue Lagoon in Durban.
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