Wednesday, 09 June 2010 17:24
Western Cape hopefuls for SA Champs
The following paddlers (see team list following this preview) will do duty for the Western Cape Canoe Union at the South African Canoe Marathon Championships that are being held on the Keurbooms River, Plettenberg Bay, this coming weekend.
The outcome of these S.A. Champs. will be to not only crown S.A. Champions in their respective categories (Juniors, U23, Seniors and Masters categories), but also to select a South African Canoe Marathon Team to take part in the annual World Canoe Marathon Championships, which this year will take place in Bayonnes, Spain, from 22nd to 26th September, 2010.
The S.A. K1 (singles) championships will be held on Saturday 12th with the S.A. K2 (doubles) championships being held on Sunday 13th June.
All the W.C.C.U. paddlers chosen have been hard at work for the championships, none more so than Milnerton’s Lance King and the premier Senior Men’s canoeist in the Western Cape last season and so far this season. To this end, he has even dropped paddling the weekend day races, now mostly on the Berg River (that season now being underway for over 3 weeks now) to focus on flat water marathon training. He certainly showed his talents at the W.C.C.U. Canoe Marathon Championships on 8th May, when he won well against a field that had in it the experienced Graeme Solomon (Peninsula) and the prodigious talent of the Maties Pierre-Andre Rabie. King again showed his worth in the W.C.C.U. K2 canoe marathon championships, when, with fellow U23 paddler, Sean Rice (Peninsula), they overcame a plus/minus 2 minute time penalty when they missed the start (equipment failure saw them struggling to get their canoe ready when the race began), to win still win the championships, albeit in an end sprint from the very experienced K2 of Ernest van Riet (Maties) and Heinrich Schloms (Paarl), and with up and coming ‘siblings’ crew of Andrew and Patrick Birkett also in on the sprint for the line.
These two top crews will be well challenged on the Keurbooms Rivers by up-country teams, the like of KZN’s Grant van der Walt and Hank McGregor, who will be paddling in the K1 event and then coming together in the K2’s, as they have in various canoeing events in recent season as well as canoe marathon (they were one of the S.A. Senior men’s teams at last years World Championships in Portugal, where they committed themselves very well), as well as by their fellow Natalian, Marc Holtzhausen, who has come through the ranks sensationally in recent times. In addition, there is ‘old hand’, the phenomenal Ant Stott, who with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals from previous World Championships, can never be discounted in any field. Stott has teamed up in a K2 with W.C.C.U.’s Graeme Solomon (who has also represented South Africa at multiple World Championships) and by what was seen on last evenings weekly time trial at Peninsula Canoe Club, when they blitzed the course in what must be a record breaking 37 minutes (record need to be checked), they are ‘red-hot’ at the moment and will give any K2 team in the country a good race. Gauteng’s experienced Jacques Theron and Piers Cruikshank (both national colours holders) will be backed by Dusi gold medallist Michael Mbanjwa and Alex Roberts to complete what will be a top-gun group of Senior Men’s paddlers in both the K1 and K2 events.
Consider that Hank McGregor is a previous World Canoe Marathon Champion, that his partner, Grant van der Walt is a previous Junior World Champion and the current World U23 Champion, Brandon van der Walt (Grant’s younger brother), the current Junior World Champion, then these plus multiple World Championship medallist Ant Stott, the scene is set for canoe marathon racing of the highest order in both K1 and K2 disciplines.
The Senior women representing W.C.C.U. in Robyn Kime (Maties) and Bianca Beavitt and Lindi-May Harmse (both Milnerton) are looking strong and probably have the better of the up-country women paddlers, most of them from last years crop having either retired or are competing in the current World Cup sprint events (e.g. Gauteng’s Bridgitte Hartley and Jen Hogson) but local Plett. based paddler, Michelle Eray, an Olympian in 2007 as well as a member of last years S.A. team to the World Championships (and who has just had an outstanding surf ski series, so has ‘the legs’) can never be taken lightly in a competitive event, such a tenacious paddler is she. In addition, KZN’s Michelle Eder, who has also had a stellar surf ski season is strong at the moment and is well backed up by Abby Adie. At this stage, the top W.C.C.U. women K1 paddlers have not teamed up with one another, but this can change – will Lindi-May Harmse continue her partnership with KZN’s Abby Adie? Will Robyn Kime look to team up with Bianca Beavitt or with one of the other women from another province? Watch this space.
The W.C.C.U. Junior team heading for Plett. is also looking impressive and will be keen to repeat the successes that they had at the same venue last year when they claimed a veritable ‘haul’ of medals – something they did again at the S.A. Schools sprint championships at the end of April a Nagel Dam. They will be well challenged by the Gauteng and KZN Juniors, but given the commitment and hard training under the likes of their Coach, Wayne August and the parent helpers from Bridgehouse School and the Paarl and Milnerton Canoe Clubs, great things can be expected from them. In particular, the likes of Milnerton’s Ivan Kruger, Michael Pretorius, Melanie van Niekerk and Marisa Pretorius have shown fabulous form so far this season, as have Paarl’s Joseph Williams, Diviano Pieterson, Luke Stowman and She-Earl de Wee. Bridgehouse’s Michael-Lee Farringer (also paddling for Paarl) has been equally impressive and there is no doubt that those paddlers even younger than them will start to feature on the national stage before too long – maybe this weekend?!
The Master’s paddlers (men and women) from the W.C.C.U. are equally talented to ‘bring home the bacon’ this year. A number of them have campaigned successfully overseas at World Championships event in recent years and that these 2010 S.A. championships are being held ‘in-season’ for the Cape paddlers (the W.C.C.U. season having been underway now for the better part of 2 months now, whilst the KZN and Gauteng seasons ended the same time ago), puts them in a very good position to do well on the Keurbooms this weekend.
The Team
The W.C.C.U. K1/K2 Canoe Marathon team that will take part in the S.A. Canoe Marathon Championships, Keurbooms River, Plettenberg Bay on 12th/13th June is as follows:
K1
Juniors
U10 Girls – Rebecca Meihuizen (Prl).
U10 Boys – Kelvin Swanepoel, Thomas Pretorius, Dillon Mackey (all Prl)
U12 Girls – Bonita Adams, Jermain Gooiman, Justien Williams (all PRL)
U12 Boys – Christopher Swanepoel, Andreas Beukes, Peter Meihuizen. (all Prl)
U14 Girls - Marine Beukes, Abigail Stubbs.(all Prl)
U14 Boys – David Meihuizen, Bradley Ruiters, Jason Minnaar (all PRL).
U16 Girls – She-Earl de Wee (PEL)
U16 Boys – Luke Stowman (PRL), Michael-Lee Farringer (Prl), Daniel-Louis Buys (Prl), Daniel Pretorius (Prl), Michael Pretorius (MiL)
U16 Girls – Melanie van Niekerk, Marisa Pretorius (all MiL)
U18 Boys – Ivan Kruger (MiL), Joseph Williams (PRL), Diviano Pietersen (PRL).
Seniors and Masters
U23 Men – Lance King (Mil), Pierre-Andre Rabie (Maties), Alasdair Glass (Pen).
U23 Women – Robyn Kime (Maties), Bianca Beavitt (Mil)
Senior Men – Lance King (Mil), Pierre-Andre Rabie (Maties), Graeme Solomon (Pen)
Senior Women – Robyn Kime (Maties), Bianca Beavitt (Mil), Lindi-May Harmse (Mil).
Sub Vets – Men – Graeme Solomon (Pen)
Vets – Men – Henri van der Merwe (Pen), Frohann Visser (Maties), Herbert Conradie (Paarl).
Vets – Women – Robyn Henderson (Mil).
Sub Masters – Men – Rob Hart (Pen), Johan Swart (EVP).
Sub Masters – Women – Lis Hart (Pen).
Masters – Daantjie Malan (Maties), Paul Lee (Pen), Paul Lange (Pen)
Sub Grandmasters – Rob MacLean (Pen), Shaun Butler (Pen), Andre Rabie (Paarl).
Grandmasters – Giel van Deventer (Paarl), Andre Collins (Mil), Roelof van Riet (Mil).
Super Grandmasters – Charles Melck (Mil)
K2
Juniors
U14 Boys – Bradley Ruiters/Theo Moses (Paarl)
Francois Roux/ David Meihuizen (Paar)
U16 Girls – Abigil Stubbs/She-Earl de Wee (Paarl)
U16 Boys – Luke Stowman/Daniel Buys (Paarl).
U18 Boys – Joseph Williams/Diviano Pieterson (Paarl)
Seniors and Masters
Senior Men – Lance King/Sean Rice (Mil/Pen)
Ernest van Riet/Heinrich Schloms (Maties/Paarl)
Andrew Birkett/Patrick Birkett (UCT/Pen)
Senior Women – Helene Rabie/Desiree van Riet (Paarl/Mil)
Veteran Women – Lis Hart/Romy Findlay (Pen/Pen)
Veteran Men – Herbert Conradie/Gary Cromi (Paarl/SOS)
Sub Masters – Rob Hart/Johan Swart (Pen/EVP)
Masters – Daantjie Malan/Ian Glass (Maties/Pen)
Sub Grandmasters – Rob MacLean/Andfre’ Rabie (Pen/Paarl).
Grandmasters – Angus Hemp/Charles Melck (Pen/Mil)
Rob MacLean
Media Liaison – W.C.C.U.
M - 082 496 8957
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