The ADT Security 'Marina 16' held on Saturday 2nd May, 2009, the real 'pipe-opener' of the local canoeing season, was a total success inasmuch as it was raced off in perfect conditions on Zandvlei and in the Marina da Gama canals - there was initially high cloud, making it overcast and therefore cool, there was no wind, hence no waves, the water level was at .90 m at the Park Island Bridge and, because of this, there were minimal weed problems to impede the forward movement of the canoes.

Some 105 paddlers lined up for the start (somewhat short of the anticipated 200 plus -  this was a long weekend, after all - but having said that, those paddlers who chose to stay away denied themselves of canoe racing at the highest level and in glorious conditions). The preview to this race stated that choosing a favourite in either the men's or ladies sections would be 'harder to pick than a broken nose' and this was borne out by the fact that several of the top names previously mentioned were conspicuous by their absence. However, there was still plenty of class on display and some upsets which may well change the order of things this season - in both the men's and ladies divisions.

The absence of such notables as Ernest van Riet (Stel) and Heinrich Schloms (Paarl) - they were both in the Veldrif area sharpening up for next weekends W.C.C.U. Canoe Marathon championships, Dawid Mocke and Sean Rice - (both Pen) - in Spain for the World Cup surf ski event there - as well as Michelle Eray - and the absence of Alexa Cole, had folk thinking that the ladies event would be dominated by Millerton's star U21 paddler, Bianca Beavitt - this was not to be though (read on) and a wildcard entry into the men's event by KZN superstar, Len Jenkins jnr, who was visiting the Cape, had tongues wagging that there was a good chance that this local event would be won by a 'foreigner'! Again - read on!

With the sponsors, ADT Securities looking to make the race an even more spectacular one - especially for the spectators - two 'Hot Spots' worth R500 each were set-up in front of the clubhouse - this would effectively mean that at the end of laps 1 and 2, there would be 'sprint finishes' as the top paddlers raced for bonus prizes. To spread the chance of winning these 'Hot Spots', the ladies were also sent off 4 minutes before the men, in an attempt to give them the chance of claiming the 'Hot Spot' at the end of Lap 1 - this also gave the men a huge racing incentive - would 4 minutes be a big enough head start to keep them at bay during the 1st lap, so reducing their ability to cash in?  (This 'Head Start' was based on the winning time differences of men vs. ladies at the Peninsula Canoe Club 10 Km time trial over the past few weeks).

At 10h00 sharp, Peninsula Canoe Club Chairman, Mark Torrington, fired the gun to set the ladies off (some 25 canoes) and 4 minutes later, the men got the green light.

From the start, the ladies who got away from the bunch and turned the northern-most buoy of the vlei first, were the 4 canoes comprising Jackie Barnes (Pen), Bianca Beavitt (Mil), Jemma Hofmeyer (Pen) and former ladies National canoeing champion and paddling legend, Jean Wilson (who was putting in a 'guest appearance'!). This paddling diamond remained together for most of the first lap but were broken up, when the leading men - Lance King (Mil), Graeme Solomon (Pen) Gavin White (Pen) and Len Jenkins jnr (KZN) caught them around about the entrance back into the main vlei. Although the men passed the ladies diamond on the left and the right, this caused the ladies group to break up, Jackie Barnes and Bianca Beavitt managing to pick up slips to break away from Jean Wilson and Jemma Hofmeyer. 

Coming out of the first turn in the 'duckpond' in front of the canoe club, Lance King, Graeme Solomon and Gavin White 'put down the hammer' and broke from Len Jenkins to establish a leading chevron of 3 boats, which dominated until the end of the race. In the ladies event, Bianca managed to break away from Jackie with more of the men's class coming through, but as the race unfolded she became isolated when she fell off a bunch after picking up a clump of weed on the nose of her canoe and then Jackie got away by hanging on to a slip which led to her domination of the ladies section of the race, Bianca having to race to 2nd position on her own for virtually the latter half of the race. Jemma Hofmeyer paddled a well judged race, getting away from Jean Wilson in the Marina canals on lap three to take 3rd place in the ladies division.

Where the men were concerned, the tactic was always going to be to catch the ladies before the end of lap 1 (and therefore claim the lap 1, R500 Hotspot prize) and so from the start, the pace was frenetic, with King, Solomon, White and Jenkins giving chase to the ladies fleet that had a 4 minute advantage over them. This leading diamond dominated the start as some 75 plus canoes blitzed off the line and headed for the first turning buoy, 500 m from the start line and at the northern end of the vlei. Although the ladies were out of sight by the time the leading men's diamond entered Thibault Canal - the first of the Marina waterways - after the right turn just after the 1st pedestrian bridge and at the end of that canal, the backmarkers of the lady paddlers were encountered and so, facing this 'traffic', they worked their way through the ladies field until they had closed the gap right down by the time they were re-entering the main vlei (i.e. the 4 minute 'cushion' was no match for the tenacity of these paddlers!).  

Going past the leading ladies, King on their left, Solomon, white and Jenkins of their right, King put in the interval which split the men's diamond into a 3 boat race - King, Solomon and White - Jenkins falling off the pace. The race was now on for the 1st of the 'Hot Spots' and it was King who dominated, heading the leading chevron of canoes up the vlei from the southern turning buoy to be first across the line to claim the 1st of the two R500 Hot Spot prizes of the day. The 3 paddlers continued to work well together, King taking the 2nd R500 Hot Spot at the end of the 2nd lap without too much difficulty and in the final lap, he and Solomon blew off White over the final 500 m of the race seeing King through the line at the end of each lap in 1st place each time, his winning time being an excellent 1 hour 07 minutes 57secs, Solomon being 2 seconds off the pace, with White in 3rd spot, 13 seconds back. The question now to be asked, is, is the pupil now overtaking the master - as in King being the pupil and Solomon being the master?

Solomon, who has dominated canoeing in the Western Cape for way more than a decade now (his first National cap was in 1994), has been the benchmark against which all up and coming local paddlers have had to work - now into his 2nd year as a Sub Vet (i.e. over 35 years), he is still a dominant paddler here and nationally, but perhaps the time he has put into his young protégé (King was Solomon's 'backseat' partner in one of the two K2 - double canoe - crews that represented S.A. at the World Canoe Marathon Championships in the Czech Republic last year and King has been one of Solomon's mores serious training partner's these past few season) will now bear fruit with King dominating on a more regular basis? Time will tell of course, and the saying ' a good young 'un will tend to beat a good old 'un',  whilst holding true in many sports, is not necessarily so in canoeing, where experience, guile and canoeing skill, learnt over many seasons carries a huge amount of weight. Gavin White, now also a regular training partner of Solomon's - he too only recently into the Senior ranks - will, with King, carry the W.C.C.U. canoeing fame ahead, ably led, backed-up (and no doubt still frequently beaten by!) by, Graeme Solomon! The Chinese saying ' we live in interesting times' is appropriate here and so too will be the 2009 W.C.C.U. canoeing season.

In the top 10 places in this event, an extremely interesting set of results were posted, when a mix of Senior U21 and Sub veteran paddlers all vied for places - they were Pierre-Andre Rabie - U21 (Stel) 4th, P-W Basson - Senior (Paarl) 5th, Ian Trautmann - Sub Vet (Pen) 6th, Andrew Birkett - U21 (UCT) 7th, Rory Cole - Sub Vet (Pen) 8th - and on a surf ski!, Paul Marais - Sub Vet (Pen) 9th, and Nick Longley - Senior (Mil) 10th. The difference between the winning time and 10th position was only some 4 minutes. As impressive as this is, a seriously worrying factor for W.C.C.U. canoeing is the dearth of Senior men paddlers - only 4 making the top 10 in yesterdays event - the others being 2 x U21 paddlers and the remaining 4 being Sub Vets - i.e. paddlers over the age of 35 years. Shall these statistics be put down to the fact it was a long weekend, or is there a real problem of no new senior paddlers coming up from the U21 ranks or are those competitive seniors losing their interest? This is something that the W.C.C.U. Exco. will have to look at closely and will no doubt form part of the discussion at this coming Thursdays W.C.C.U. Annual General Meeting. 

Jackie Barnes (Pen), the 1st lady home (also U21) was in 26th position overall with Bianca Beavitt (Mil), 2nd lady (also U21) close behind - with these two ladies still being out of the Senior ladies rankings and yet doing so well (as well as Milnerton's outstanding U18 women in Melanie van Niekerk and Marissa Pretorius 'making waves' (both were at the S.A. Schools Sprint Champs in KZN this weekend), it augurs well for the continuation of W.C.C.U. lady paddlers dominating the national scene into the future. Next weekends W.C.C.U. Canoe Marathon championships will prove to be very interesting in the ladies divisions as will they when the S.A. Marathon Champs. are held at the end of June. Will we see these two U21 paddlers breaking into the Senior ranks, both having been selected to represent S.A. in the junior (U18) divisions in the past? 

In conclusion - the W.C.C.U. race on Saturday 2nd May - the 'ADT Marina 16' was a classic - excellently organised (well done to Peninsula Canoe Club and in particular to Dave Hitchcock and Ian Trautmann), paddled in perfect canoe racing conditions (those who weren't there, eat your hearts out - 'if you snooze, you loose' - and the prizes were exceptional too!) and a good start to another local canoe tracing season.

Results:

Top 10.

1. Lance King  (Mil) 1 hour 07 min 57 secs

2. Graeme Solomon (Pen) 1:07:59

3. Gavin White (Pen) 1:08:07

4. Pierre-Andre Rabie (Stel) 1:10:05

5. Pieter-Willem Basson (Paarl) 1:10:06

6. Ian Trautmann (Pen) 1:10:07

7. Andrew Birkett (UCT) 1:11:38

8. Rory Cole (Pen) 1:11:39

9. Paul Marais (Pen) 1:11:41

10. Nic Longley (Mil) 1:11:56

Senior Men

1. Lance King (Mil)

2. Graeme Solomon (Pen)

3. Gavin White (Pen)

Senior Women

1. Jackie Barnes (Pen) 1:19:00

2. Bianca Beavitt (Mil) 1:20:03

3. Jemma Hofmeyer (Pen) 1: 21: 15.

U21(Men)

1. Pierre-Andre Rabie (Stel)

2. Andrew Birkett (UCT)

3. James Birkett (UCT

U21 (Women)

1. Jackie Barnes (Pen)

2. Bianca Beavitt (Mil)

Junior (Boys) (U18)

1. Crisjan Coetzee (Mil)

2. Emile Minaar (Mil)

3. Conrad Schutte (Mil)

Sub Veteran (Women) (35 - 39 years)

1. Vicky Hind (Pen)

Sub Veteran (Men)

1. Graeme Solomon (Pen)

2. Rory Cole (Pen)

3. Paul Marais (Pen)

Veteran (Women) (40 - 44 years)

1. Jean Wilson (Pen)

2. Lis Hart (Pen)

3. Lisa Scott (Mil)

Veteran (Men)

1. Ian Trautmann (Pen)

2. Rob Hart (Pen)

3. Jami Hamlin (Stel)

Sub Masters (45 - 49 years)

1. Glenn Trueb (Pen)

2. Johan 'Mamba' Swart (Stel)

3. Nick Baikoff (Pen)

Masters (50 - 54 years)

1. Shaun Butler (Pen)

2. Garth Watters (Pen)

3. Nick Rockey (Pen)

Sub Grandmasters (55 - 59 years)

1. Rob MacLean (Pen)

2. Andre Rabie (Paarl)

Grandmasters (60 years plus)

1. Giel van Deventer (Paarl)

2. David Cade (Pen)

3. Roy Linley (Pen).

Novice Ladies.

1. Jade de Hutton (Pen)

2. Natasha Bracale (Pen)

K2 (double canoes)

1. Garry and Ann Pervusset (Pen)

2. Carol de Jager/ Gary Clarke (Pen)

3. Kevin Bouwer/Barry Hayward (Mil).