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The 38 km section of the Breede River between Drew Bridge and Die Stroom, Swellendam, provided high drama in Western Cape canoeing circles when the two favourite crews on the day, the National K2 crews of Ant Stott/Graeme Solomon (KZN/Pen) and Ernest van Riet/Heinrich Schloms (Maties/ Paarl), were upstaged by the young and determined Matie and Peninsula Canoe Club's Pierre-Andre' Rabie/Patrick Birkett who took the race down to the wire, ending it in a final sprint for the line as well as Gavin White/Zaren Courtney (Pen/CTY), who were 3rd home on the day, the National crews placing 2nd and 4th overall!

                                  Pierre-Andre' Rabie/Patrick Birkett (Pic by Tracey-Lee Anderson)

Held on a medium to full river - i.e. perfect conditions for the race, overcast and with a mild north-west (i.e. a tail wind), paddlers could not have hoped for it to have been better, especially after two races of the Breede season have not been held because of very low water levels, the 108 craft (153 paddlers because there were a number of K1's entered) started in slightly less chaotic circumstances than in previous weeks, seedings for the first 30 craft having been arranged, which made a lot of sense and it is hoped that seedings at all races will become the norm in future. The leading bunch pulled away from the field on the long, flat 3 km section down to the first big left-and-right hand bend. Whilst this caused little trouble amongst Rabie/Birkett, Stott/Solomon/van Riet/Schloms, Gavin White (back from representing South Africa at the World Canoe Sprint Championships)/Zaren Courtney (Pen/CTY), Paul Marais/Alasdair Glass(Pen/Pen) and Edgar Boehm jnr/Joe Kearney (Pen/Pen), the 'S' bend that it is, the upstream eddies and the narrowing of the river forced this group to virtually adopt an follow-the-leader approach for some 300m until the flats were again reached and jockeying for positions on the leading diamond became paramount.Further back down the field, this 'S' bend rapid caused its usual chaos with canoes spinning out, being rammed and capsized, causing the English and Afrikaans languages to become mangled and strangled as paddlers fought to either stay upright or float to shallow, slower flowing waters with their boats, for emptying out.

Because of the fairly high water levels, the approaches to the Waterfall Rapid, some 25 minutes into the race, gave paddlers the option of either shooting it on river left or taking the channels on river right and by-passing - something that many of the field opted to do (hence the normal, swimming gala-like proportions of capsized canoes and swimming crews was slightly down than on previous years, but still a sight to behold of paddler-less canoes and bobbing heads in the water!) and further stretched out the racing bunches and seeing the leading 4 boats of Stott/Solomon, Rabie/Birkett, van Riet Schloms and White/Courtney get the classic racing group together.

Not long after the half way mark and a kilometre or so beyond the Breede/Riviersonderend confluence, White/Courtney lost touch and then in the rapids on one of the big bends before the train bridge to Swellendam is reached, van Riet/Schoms took an uncharateristic swim. Stott and Solomon grabbd this opportunity to pile on the pressure, getting away from Rabie/Birkett by as much as 100 m and it wasn't until the N2 bridge was reached, just beyond the Swellendam weir (which both crews safely shot), that these racing K2's came together again. From then on to the end (5 km), which includes that wonderful 2 - 3 kms of fun roller-coaster like rapids, down to the long pool the culminates at Die Stroom, the end point, these two crews raced neck-and-neck, the ultimate winners being Rabie/Birkett by 5 seconds over Stott/Solomon. van Riet/Schloms, having recovered from their untimely swim, were unable to hold off White/Courtney, who took the 3rd place on the podium some 30 seconds ahead of the Matie/Paarl crew.

The Senior women's event did not live up the prediction of this scribe in the pre-race report as neither Lindi-May Harmsen/Abi Adie (Mil/KZN) not Jackie Barnes/Jemma Hofmeyer (UCT/Pen) took to the water, leaving the Lady Vets., Lisa Scott/Lis Hart (Mil/Pen) to win this racing category. Helene Rabie/Desiree' van Riet (Paarl/Mil)were the 2nd woman's crew home with another Women's Vet. crew, Mandy Simpson/Judy Goodspeed (Mil/Mil) being place 3rd. 

The mixed doubles provided some exciting racing with Simon van Gysen/Anna Notten (Pen/Pen) trading places with Ian Trautmann/Natasha Bracale (Pen/Pen) before the former got away to register a win by nearly 4 minutes, with the Matie combination of Louw van Riet and Kirsten Penderis taking 3rd spot.

The National K2 junior (U18) crew to the World's in Spain next month of Joseph Williams and Diviano Pietersen (Paarl/Paarl), took an unfortunate swim in the rapids in the latter third of the race, but recovered to beat their challengers, Peninsula's Craig Flanagan/Dominic Notten to register a very good 15th place overall. Flanagan/Notten were 17th whilst the third Juniors home were Paarl's Michael Farringer/Daniel Pretorius.

Everything is now set for the forty-second running of the Breede River Canoe Marathon that will start at the McGregor Bridge near to Robertson next Saturday, 4th September and end at Kambati resort, some 76 kilometres downstream, on Sunday 5th. With the river levels up for the last race (Drew-Swellendam), and with rain predicted during the week, it is anticipated that it will be another successful event, the organizers happy with the entries (and still expecting latecomers, now that the water levels are up) and with good weather predicted. 

Results

Top Ten.

1. Pierre-Andre Rabie/Patrick Birkett, Maties/Pen - 2 hours 14 minutes 42 seconds.

2. Ant Stott/Graeme Solomon, KZN/Pen - 2:14:47

3. Gavin White/Zaren Courtney, Pen/CTY - 23:18:09

4. Ernest van Riet/Heinrich Schloms, Maties/Paarl - 2:18:44

5. Paul Marais/Alasdair Glass, Pen/Pen - 2:21:41.

6. Edgar Boehm jnr/Joe Kearney, Pen/Pen - 2:21:43

7. AJ Bam/Rory Sandberg, Maties/Maties - 2:24:56

8. Richard Kohler/Rob Hart, Mil/Pen - 2:25:06

9. Herbert Conradie/Gary Cromie, Prl/SOS - 2:25:17

10. Etienne Rawlinson/Marius Harmsen, Mil/Mil - 2:26:52.

Senior Women

1. Lisa Scott/Lis Hart, Mil/Pen - 2:49:00 (52nd overall).

2. Helene Rabie/Desiree' van Riet, Prl/Mil (71st)

3. Mandy Simpson/Judy Goodspeed, Mil/Mil - 3:03:35 (85th)

Junior U18's

1. Joseph Williams/Diviano Pietersen, Prl/Prl - 2:29:49 (15th)

2. Craig Flanagan/Dominic Notten, Pen/Pen - 2:59:53 (17th)

3. Michael Farringer/Emile Minnaar, Prl/Prl - 2:34:02 (22nd)

U21's,

1. Andrew Birkett/Adrian Cox, UCT/UCT - 2:27:58 (12th)

Sub Veterans

1. Garth Watters/Anton Cartwright, Pen/Pen - 2:28:09 (13th)

2. Daan du Toit/Hennie du Toit, Mil/Mil - 2:30:51 (18th)

3. Dale Lewis/Sean Hooper, CTY/Mil - 2:24:03 (40th)

Veterans

1. Richard Kohler/Rob Hart, Mil/Pen - 2:25:06 (8th)

2. Herbert Conradie/Gary Cromie, Prl/SOS - 2:25:17 (9th)

3. Russell Ikin/Marais Steyn, Mil/Mil - 2:35:00 (25th)

Veteran Women.

1. Lisa Scott/Liz Hart, Mil/Pen - 2:49:00 (52nd)

2. Mandy Simpson/Judy Goodspeed, Mil/Mil - 3:03:35 (85th)

Sub Masters

1. Mynhardt Marais/Daantjie Malan, Prl/Maties - 2:36:14 ((26th)

2. Giel van Deventer/Etienne Buys, Prl/Prl - 2:39:35 (30th)

3. Ken Findlay/Nick Baikoff, Pen/Pen - 2:41:27 (34th)

Masters

1. Ian Glass/Shaun Butler, Pen/Pen - 2:31:38  (20th)

2. Francois du Toit/Neil Bartie, Prl/Prl - 2:42:34 (37th)

3. Rory Anderson/Andy McPherson, Pen/Pen - 2:44:13 (54th)

Sub Grandmasters

1. Rob MacLean/Andre' Rabie, Pen/Prl - 2:29:51 (16th)

2. Enslin van Riet/Anthony Penderis, Mil/Maties - 2:46:39 (43rd)

3. Johnny Smuts/Mike English, Pen/Pen - 2:49:38 (54th)

Grandmasters

1. Angus Hemp/Charles Melck, Pen/Mil - 3:22:16 (94th)

K1's.

1. Peter Cole, Pen - 2:34:30 (24th)

2. Marius de Waal, OUT - 2:40:43 (32nd)