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LANCE KING WITHDRAWS FROM THE ‘SWARTLAND’ |
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Written by Mark Torrington
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Wednesday, 10 June 2009 |
Local canoeing ‘wunderkind’, 21 year old Lance King (Milnerton Canoe Club), who has won all the local W.C.C.U. races that he has entered his season, has been forced to withdraw from the Swartland 90 km River Marathon on instructions from the Marathon Committee of Canoe South Africa, as it is feared that such a gruelling race just 2 weeks before the S.A. Canoe Marathon Championships (Keurbooms River, Plettenberg Bay, 27th and 28th June), will affect his chances of making the National team again.
This is a blow to the organizers (Peninsula Canoe Club) as the ‘shootout’ between King and the 2008 Berg River Champion, KZN’s Hank McGregor, was an eagerly anticipated event. This then places the responsibility of keeping the Swartland trophy in the Cape upon paddlers such as Pieter-Willem Basson and Heinrich Schloms (both Paarl CC) and Ernest van Riet (Stellenbosch). The question now is, will local knowledge of this section of the Berg River (between Skooltjie, Wellington and Bridgetown) be enough to hold off the awesome paddling power of McGregor? Will ‘provincialism’ in the form of competitive slip-riding come to the party and play its part? All will be revealed this coming Saturday and Sunday.
Good news just received though is that former National Marathon champion and international paddler and now General Manager of Canoe South Africa, Graham Bird, looks like a late entry into the ‘Swartland’, and top local women’s river paddling sensation, Robyn Kime of Stellenbosch (see photo attached), has confirmed her entry. At the other end of the scale, Willem van Riet (Peninsula CC - see pic attached), considered by many to the the ‘Father of the Berg’ – he paddled the river from Paarl to the Atlantic Ocean at Veldrif as a teenager over 45 years ago - has also entered. 67 year old Van Riet is indeed a ‘living legend’ where canoeing in South Africa is concerned, having paddled all the major rivers of southern Africa well before the development of modern canoes and rafts had reached these shores, and is a previous Berg River canoe champion as well as a Springbok paddler from the 1960’s. He sees this event as part of his training programme towards the ‘Big One’, i.e. the 240 kilometre Berg River Canoe Marathon, traditioanlly held each year in July. Amongst other paddlers of pedigree who have entered are Mynhardt Marais (Paarl CC), also a previous Berg River Champion and who has represented South Africa at canoeing, Julius Andrag (Outeniqua CC), also a former National Colours holder, Giel van Deventer (Paarl CC), who this year will line up to start his 40th Berg River Marathon, and 19 year old paddling sensation out of the Worcester region and now a Stellenbosch student, Junior National colours holder, Pierre-Andre’ Rabie – have also entered the 2009 ‘Swartland’ and one can be certain that these will be names high up on the list of honours after the event.
This sees the number of entries moving towards the ‘100 paddler’ mark.
With 3 days to go and the rains having ceased in the short term, the Berg River has been dropping back to a ‘high-ish to medium’ level, which will see the re-emergence of the infamous tree blocks that form part of most Berg River races, and that which led well-known Gauteng paddling personaility, Colin Simpkins, refer to Western Cape paddlers as being ….’monkeys’… and this was notas an insult, jibe or a put-down, but rather a statement of fact of how good local canoeists were used to handling trees and tree blocks that obstructed their forward momentum on the Berg River far better than paddlers from up-country! This will also see paddlers making the decision to paddle with or without spray decks to help the ‘getting-out’ and ‘getting-in’ process that will come with frequent portaging, against the potential of shipping water in faster-flowing water and shooting the odd rapid and weir, here and there on this section of river.
The organizers have come to the party with a fabulous array of prizes and goody-bags for all entries and their good organization coupled with the excellent meals being supplied by the good folk of the Berg River Valley to the competitors, will provide for another outstanding Swartland K1 Canoe Marathon, a race that is begining to grip the imagination of paddlers across the country.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 04 February 2010 )
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