Tuesday, 15 February 2011 13:14
Big Five prowling for ultimate advantage at Dusi 2011
Durban - As The Unlimited Dusi dedicates its 60th running to the legacy of the "Dusi King" Graeme Pope-Ellis, who dominated the race for close on two decades, the overall title race has never ever been tighter, with five racers, all of them former Dusi winners, capable of snatching the R55 000,00 winner's cheque.
Leading the Big Five is Ant Stott (winner 1998, 2006/7/9). He will start as the defending champion, looking over his shoulders at the other former title holders on the seeded front row Michael Mbanjwa (2008), Hank McGregor (2005/6), Len Jenkins 2001 and Andrew Birkett (2010).
Each of them brings very unique and specific qualities to the race that could unlock the glory of winning the 60th edition of the race. Each of them will assert themselves over key sections of 118km course from Camp's Drift to Durban. Risk will be measured against reward in every effort to put together a combination of running, river paddling and flatwater racing that could take them to victory.
So often it is about being able to take advantage of misfortune. Stott knows about that. His maiden win in 1998 with Kelby Murray came against a backdrop of final day implosions by the overnight race leaders and they were perfectly poised to streak into the lead and into the Dusi history books.
He felt the flip side of that coin last year when he and Michael Mbanjwa played all their cards at the right time, took the lead on the final stage, only to come unstuck in the untested Pumphouse Rapids an hour from the finish.
Day Two is Ant Stott's day. Year after year he has put together staggering assaults over the tough 43km from Dusi bridge to Inanda Dam, and every other elite paddler will be pleased just to stay with him when he starts his Day Two charge again this year, no matter where he is lying.
Hank McGregor brings a bulldog tenacity to the race. The ultimate competitor, he hates losing, and is capable of grinding his opposition into submission. A former champion cross-country runner, he can hold his own on the runs, but dreads lower river conditions where his weight becomes an issue.
Len Jenkins is poised to win the singles title a decade after his 2001 demolition of the race. His favoured style of racing is from the front, ideally furiously stretching the front bunch until he is on his own, which in many ways then takes pressure of himself, and he is capable of almost unheard of solo marathon charges that cannot be countered, even by paddlers working together in groups.
Mbanjwa spends his entire year preparing for the Dusi, and more than anything he wants to proves that there was nothing lucky about his 2008 win with Dreyer. The poster boy of the race and the hero of thousands who line the banks of the Umsindusi and Umgeni rivers, he makes no bones about the fact that the hysterical local support he enjoys is his secret weapon.
Andrew Birkett has done a pretty good job of flying under-the-radar since his sensational win with Jason Graham last year. The youngest of the Dusi Big Five, he has the all-round pedigree to become a tailored-made Dusi champion.
The Dusi actually chooses its winners very carefully, and there are no Dusi flash-in-the-pans. Birkett, like Jenkins and Stott, shows a clear progression through the Dusi record books, winning the junior singles titles before starting a steady and insidious passage up the top ten gold medal listings. There is little doubt the time is right for Birkett to make his mark on the K1 race, and to prove his veteran partner Graham right when he predicted that Birkett would join the ranks of the Dusi legends.
Sport fans will thrive on the spectacle of the Big Five doing battle on the Umsindusi and Umgeni rivers. Don't be at all surprised of their dominance of the grasslands and waterways if threatened by other species just as capable of territorial dominance, like the irrepressible Eric Zondi.
The Unlimited Dusi starts on Pietermaritzburg on 17 February and ends in Durban on 19 February.
More information can be found at www.dusi.co.za
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