Monday, 23 August 2010 06:47
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Low river levels forece course change
With the Breede River running at its lowest levels since 2004, it was decided by the WCCU Exco on Thursday that the annual running of the McGregor Bridge (Robertson) to Diggton Farm (Bonnivale) would be moved to the Berg River and the 30 km Gouda Bridge to Bridgetown section.
This stretch of river provided sufficient water. The race was sponsored for the first time by Bamboo Warehouse, one of the Directors of which is the iconic Western Cape paddler, Graeme Solomon, who won his SA National canoeing colours for the umpteenth time in 2010 (he first won back in the mid 1990s).
And as it turned out, Solomon (Peninsula CC), not only was the winner of 'his' event, but with his 2010 SA K2 partner to Spain next month for the World Canoe Marathon Championships, Ant Stott - the manager of Bamboo Warehouse in KZN, enhanced an already stellar field, Ernest van Riet (Maties) and Heinrich Schloms (Paarl) also having been chosen for the SA team at the World's next month. Throw into the mix, Pierre-Andre Rabie, an SA U23 team member last year, Edgar Boehm jnr, an SA Junior from several years back and it was always going to be a good race, but no-one could have predicted just how dominant the Stott/Solomon combination was going to be, they winning by more than 5 minutes over their fellow Protea's, van Riet/Schloms.
The race was started by 88 craft, (approx 160 paddlers, there having been several K1s as well) in cold, wet and windy weather (the first canoe race of the 2010 canoe season to begin in inclement weather) approximately 500 m below the Gouda Bridge, because of the extensive tree block 200 m downstream of the bridge. From the start, it was a four boat bunch that set the early pace - Stott/Solomon, van Riet/Schloms, Edgar Boehm jnr (Pen/Pen), and Pierre-Andre Rabie/Patrick Birkett (Maties/Pen) over the first 4.5 km to Black Rock rapid. It is interesting to note that Stott/Solomon decided to portage this rapid whilst van Riet/Schloms shot it, and yet both came away from it together, this showing how slick the Stott/Solomon combination is, having just spent 10 days - with excellent success - on the Spanish canoe racing circuit where they have 'waxed' their portaging to high degree, because the terrain over which to carry at Black Rock is rocky is, very uneven and in the gusty, wet conditions, also slippery.
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