Swellendam — The men’s and women’s events at the Breede River Canoe Marathon face vastly different second-day races for the title on Sunday.
In the men’s race, Hank McGregor and Uli Hart crossed the line at the end of Day 1 with a narrow one-second lead over the Ron Benjano / Nicholas Notten and Clinton Cook / Thomas Lovemore crews, setting up a tense three-way battle for victory.
In the women’s race, defending champions Kira Bester and Melanie van Niekerk were clearly the stronger crew in the race from Robertson to Bonnievale on Saturday and now enjoy a solid 66-second advantage over Candice Starr and Stephanie von der Heyde at the start of stage two from Bonnievale to Swellendam on Sunday.
“The water level was so nice today and it all went to plan for us,” said Bester on Saturday afternoon. “Our gampelan was to stick with the other women until Sliding Weir and then try and make a break from there … and that is pretty much what happened.
“We pulled the group into Sliding Weir and then in the long two or three kilometres of rapids after that we broke away and opened up a gap of about 200m by the time we reached Secunda Weir.”
Bester is cautiously optimistic about their chances of successfully defending the Western Cape K2 title the pair won 12 months ago.
“Tomorrow we start in elapsed time and have a nice group of paddlers around us to work with while it looks like Candice and Stephanie will not have the same help from crews around them.
“But it is a river race, so you can never be too confident, and we do have a bit of a history of taking swims, so it may be nice to have a bit of a cushion starting the final day,” she added with a laugh.
The three leading men’s crews will resume battle with effectively no advantage because of the elapsed time start which means they will set off in a group as they finished Day 1. The trio will have to tread a fine line of racing each other, while not being too tactical because of the bunch of four strong crews starting together just over a minute back.
Master tactician McGregor and his powerful Western Cape partner, Hart, will start the deciding stage with the psychological advantage after winning Day 1 and know they are a crew with the brains and brawn to wrap up the title.
However, the Benjano and Notten, and Cook and Lovemore crews are clearly no pushovers, and spectators can expect a tense battle which is likely to be decided in the final sprint to the line.
Selected Leading Day 1 Results
Men
1 Hank McGregor / Uli Hart 02:08:26
2 Ron Benjano / Nicholas Notten 02:08:27
3 Clinton Cook / Thomas Lovemore 02:08:27
4 Paul Marais / Mark Keeling 02:09:56
5 Murray Starr / Daniel Jacobs 02:09:58
6 Kenneth Rice / Ryley Michael Smith 02:09:58
7 Greg Louw / Heinrich Van Rooyen 02:09:59
8 Ernest Van Riet / Heinrich Schloms 02:11:41
9 Armand Van Niekerk / Stefaans Erlank 02:16:35
10 Dyllan Farrell / Cody Stallard 02:16:36
Women
1 Melanie Van Niekerk / Kira Bester 02:21:07
2 Candice Starr / Stephanie Von Der Heyde 02:22:13
3 Tayla Isaac / Rachel Van Deventer 02:36:25
Mixed
1 Joanne Conradie / Jermaine Pietersen 02:28:22
2 Bianca Beavitt / Crispin Thompson 02:29:01
3 David Marsh / Tamsin Lovelock 02:29:32
4 Luka Koumantarakis / Hannah Joa Theron 02:30:44
5 Martin Fraser-Mackenzie / Sally Fraser-Mackenzie 02:32:08