Tuesday, 18 January 2011 07:37
New Margie Oliver trophy to be awarded to winning woman
Former Epworth schoolgirl Robyn Kime is determined to try and win the weekend’s Global Trader Drak Challenge canoe marathon, partly because it is one of the few major races that the new star of women’s canoeing has not won, but also because it will serve as a tribute to the popular “mother of canoeing” Margie Oliver, who passed away recently.
To show their appreciation of Oliver’s contribution to the sport, the race organisers have announced that this year’s event will see the introduction of the Margie Oliver trophy, to be awarded to the winning woman, and Kime is relishing the opportunity to be the first name engraved onto this piece of silverware.
“Margie Oliver was a great help to me over the years,” said Kime. “She was always so supportive and her encouragement was endless. It would mean a lot to me to be able to win the Margie Oliver trophy.”
“She was especially encouraging towards youngsters coming into the sport. I think as a junior you never quite realised just how much she did, particularly for women’s canoeing, but if you look back 15 or 20 years, canoeing was extremely male dominated and Margie is largely the one to thank for getting women’s canoeing to where it is today,” she added.
Despite this personal link, it will be business as usual for the talented young Maties paddler who has prepared well and eagerly awaits the opportunity to capture yet another of the country’s prestigious canoeing titles, with this being one of the very few which still elude her.
“With Dusi coming up I’ve been doing a lot of running, but otherwise I haven’t done anything vastly different to how I usually prepare,” said the second year student.
Kime has proved to be a dominant force in the Western Cape where she is currently studying, and won he Swartland and Windhoek Berg titles to go with her Dusi victory. Last year however the Umzimkulu river proved to be her undoing, as she took two swims on the final day as Abby Adie kept her nerve and raced away to victory.
Backing her sound technical ability, Kime will be hoping for a fairly low water level this weekend, however, despite the early stages of this week forecast to be relatively dry, fairly substantial rainfall is expected for the latter part of the week which could influence the race quite significantly.
“The Drak is always such a great event to come to,” said Kime. “The Dusi requires a lot of training and so the Drak is always refreshing and enjoyable.”
“The water is clean, the rapids are fun, Underberg is such a lovely place to come to and there is always such a great atmosphere,” she added.
The Global Trader Drak Challenge takes place in Underberg on 22 and 23 January.
Add comment
