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The 28 km Gouda to Bridgetown K1 canoe race, held on the Berg River on Saturday 29^th May, 2010, was held on a full river and in perfect weather conditions. The sky was blue and cloudless, the wind, gentle from behind and the backdrop of the snow capped Groot Winterhoek made for a picture as pretty as could be imagined. And into this landscape, 116 canoeists started the race slightly upstream of the Gouda bridge, the rains on late last week having raised the water levels sufficiently to negate having to start below the tree block about 200m below the bridge which would have been the case had the river been as low as it was when tripped last Wednesday by members of the organizing club.

                       Graeme Solomon & Heinrich Schloms

From the outset, the breakaway leading bunch included Graeme Solomon (Peninsula), Heinrich Schloms (Paarl), Pierre-Andre Rabie (Maties), Ernest van Riet (Maties), Sean Rice (Peninsula), Patrick Birkett (Peninsula) and Andrew Birkett (UCT), closely tracked by Greg van Heerden (Milnerton), Richard Fly (Maties), Louw van Riet (Maties), Alasdair Glass (Pen) and James Birkett (UCT). The swirling conditions made by the full river, made life relatively difficult for many paddlers, who had, up to this weekend, been paddling on fairly low water in training as well as on the flat waters of their respective training venues. These swirlies tend to push the lightweight K1 canoes around, often upsetting paddlers because of placement of paddles for strokes, clashing into other canoes and paddles and generally meaning that no-one can afford to relax for a moment. Being on a full Cape river as well, not only do the paddlers have to be on the lookout for swirlies in the stream, but also the overhanging branches of trees lining the riverbanks, which in many cases hand been broken and were overflowing, as well as the myriad minor and major blockages on the way caused by debris swept down by the rains

After some 20 minutes of paddling and with Solomon in the fore, the leading bunch approached Black Rock and had to make the decision to shoot it (and where?) or to portage. In river racing, shooting and ‘making it’ through a rapid will always be faster than portaging and so the entire leading bunch elected for the former – however, this is where the bunch split for the first time, Solomon taking the more traditional left chute once into the rapid, Rabie and those following him, taking the new, ‘straight’ chute that had been cleared during the week preceding the race. As a result, Solomon came out well behind them and had to mount an attack to chase them down. This he did, passing on the way to the leaders, Birkett and Rice who had dropped off the pace. After Train Bridge (approximately half-way) and the channels leading out of it, Solomon, Schloms and Rabie made their break ‘under the Heuningberg’ and stayed together until about half-way between Drie Heuwels Weir and Bridgetown, when an unexpected tree block saw off Rabie’s challenge, Solomon and Schloms getting through it first and making the end an exciting sprint-dice for Solly to claim victory by 1 second, Rabie crossing the line 2 minutes or so behind them for 3^rd position.

                                       Robyn Kime

Robyn Kime (Maties) as predicted, won the women’s race, showing that she is in a class of her own right now, but not without an uncharacteristic swim. When finding a sneak channel blocked by another paddler at Yesterpen Rapid, she was forced to take to the water to get through. However, she was never challenged by any of the by the other women paddlers, although a new face in Marisa Pretorius (Milnerton) was on the podium in 2^nd place. This U18 paddler has been making her way through the ranks and is quickly getting to grips with the nuances of racing on rivers, so she will no doubt grace the podium in the future. The 3^rd woman home was Milnerton’s Robyn Henderson – (Robyn was also the 1^st Woman veteran paddler to cross the finish line).

In the Junior ranks, there was a considerable upset when the 1^st three U16 paddlers home, Michael-Lee Farringer, Luke Stowman (both Paarl)and Daniel Pretorius (Milnerton), were all in front of their U18 counterparts – Marisa Pretorius (Mil), Diviano Pieterson and Emile Minnaar (Paarl). Such results are excellent for the sport in the Western Cape in the future and they (are all) to be congratulated).

116 canoes started the race and a Nelson, i.e. 111 completed it – i.e. 5 canoes DNF. (The organizers, Peninsula Canoe Club assured WCCU, that they were found! – with broken canoes, hence they could not continue).

Excellent photographs can be found of this race on the Drumbeat Photography website – www.drumbeatphotography.co.za)

Results.

Senior (Open) Men

1. Graeme Solomon (Peninsula) 2 hours 0 minutes 10 seconds ( Record for this section - I Hour 36 minutes, 23 seconds by Daniel Conradie in 1992)

2. Heinrich Schloms (Paarl) 2:00:11

3. Pierre-Andre Rabie (Maties) 2:02:12

Senior (Open) Women

1. Robyn Kime (Maties) 2:21:42       (29^th overall)

2. Marisa Pretorius (Mil) 2:30:30       (47^th)

3. Robyn Henderson (Mil) 2:33:22     (58^th)

Junior U16

1. Michael-Lee Farringer (Paarl) 2:14:10    (14^th)

2. Luke Stowman (Paarl) 2:18:35              (24^th)

3. Daniel Pretorius (Mil)                            (46^th)(

Junior U18

1. Marisa Pretorius (Mil) 2:30:30               (47^th)

2. Diviano Pieterson (Paarl) 2:35:52          (62^nd)

3. Emile Minnaar (Paarl)                            (69^th)

Sub Veterans

1. Graeme Solomon (Pen) 2:00:10            (1^st)

2. Greg van Heerden (Mil) 2:08:40             (8^th)

3. Daan du Toit (Mil) 2:21:55                    (31^st)

Veterans

1. Ian Trautmann (Pen) 2:13:08                 (13^th)

2. Tom Thring (Pen) 2:14:23                     (16^th)

3. Rob Meintjies (LAN) 2:18:34                   (23^rd)

Sub Masters

1. Rob Hart (Pen) 2:15:45                         (18^th)

2. Etienne Buys (Prl) 2:27:05                    (45^th)

3. Anton Holtzhausen (CTY) 2:31:04          (53^rd)

Masters

1. Ian Glass (Pen) 2:18:29                        (22^nd)

2. Paul Langer (Pen) 2:23:41                    (35^th)

3. Daantjie Malan (Maties)                       (40^th)

Sub Grandmasters

1. Shaun Butler (Pen) 2:17:39                  (20^th)

2. Rob MacLean (Pen) 2:21:38                 (27^th)

3. Christo Smit (Mil) 2:21:40                    (28^th)

Grandmasters

1. Giel van Deventer (Prl) 2:26:20            (44^th)

2. Tienie van Schoor (Maties) 2:40:54      (80^th)

3. Colin McClement (CTY) 2:49:39          (93^rd)