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Preview of Hansa
Powerade Drakensberg Challenge SA K1 Champs 2007
Underberg – A record field of well over 900 paddlers will gather outside
Underberg on Saturday morning for the start of the Hansa Powerade
Drakensberg Challenge canoe marathon, which will also decide the SA K1 River
titles for 2007.
The weather gods have shrouded the race in uncertainty, as a dry fortnight
has left the Umzimkulu river running low, which will almost certainly result
in the race course being altered, eliminating the narrow rocky Valley of a
Thousand Rapids, and starting at the Trout Hatcheries, where the river
widens and deepens.
Both defending champions will be absent, for different reasons. Len Jenkins,
who triumphed over Hank McGregor in a see-saw battle with Hank McGregor last
year, is enjoying a lay-off after his summer season’s endeavours.
Carol Joyce, who capitalised on a mishap by leader Abbey Miedema on the
second stage to snatch the 2006 title, is committed to the women’s K4 crew
striving to qualify a place for South Africa at the Beijing Olympics.
That leaves the door open for a new name to be engraved on the 14 year old
trophies.
Hank McGregor will start as the favourites to take the overall line honours,
and in the process erase two previous second place finishes in this race.
“This has got to be a case of “Third Time Lucky” said McGregor.
The brawny Durbanite capsized in dramatic fashion during last year’s race,
after hitting a submerged rock in Glenhaven Rapid, the race’s biggest
obstacle. The year before he made a mistake just minutes from the end that
left his high and dry on a rocky outcrop, allowing Ant Stott to scuttle away
and win the 2005 title.
McGregor will find the going tough with the likes of an on form Michael
Mbanjwa, who posted a stunning victory in the recent Stihl Non Stop Dusi to
go with his second place in the Hansa Powerade Dusi. Mbanjwa, who paddles
out of the Joburg East Rand nowadays, has singled out the year’s major K1
races as his primary focus for 2007.
Add to that the class of the Bartho brothers Darryl and Brett, the form
Joburg paddlers Piers Cruikshanks, Mike Stewart and Jacques Theron, and the
race at the front is likely to be hot and unforgiving.
There is also a slim chance that Jenkins may still arrive on the startline
on Saturday morning, and that classy wild water racer Shaun Biggs, who is
still struggling with offers to stay with the men’s K4 sprint team, may also
enter at the last minute.
The women’s race sees Abbey Miedema start as the clear favourite,
particularly after the withdrawal of Alexa Lombard, whose shoulder injury
suffered during the Hansa Powerade Dusi has not healed in time.
Miedema is out to secure a rare hat-trick of SA K1 titles, after wrapping up
the national singles river crowns at the Fish and Highlands Challenge races
in the last two years.
In the women’s field, Miedema challenge will come from rising star Laura
Thompson, who was the Dusi bridesmaid in January in her first serious
challenge in the singles race, and the likes of Lorna Oliver, and Kirsty van
der Merwe, who was the overnight race leader during last year’s Drak
Challenge.
The race usually starts at Castleburn, high in the Garden Castle foothills,
and covers 26km to the overnight stop at the Swartberg Road bridge just
outside Underberg.
However unless a well timed thunderstorm rescued the low river situation,
Day One will almost certainly be held from the Trout Hatcheries to Callaway
bridge, just below the Underberg Gorge.
The second day will be from Swartberg Road bridge to Early Mists Farm, where
a new finish venue has been set up three hundred metres further downstream
than the old finish.
The fun-filled weekend includes the heated inter-club golf-day at the
Underberg Country Club on Saturday afternoon, and the popular Saturday night
party at the Underberg School where the locals let their hair down with the
paddlers and their seconds.
The Hansa Powerade Drakensberg Challenge will host the SA K1 River
Championships in Underberg on 24 and 25 February. Entries closed on 17
February, but late entries are still being processed. The race website is at
www.canoesa.org.za/DrakChallenge
ENDS
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