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Although it was only just over two weeks ago, the N3TC Drak Challenge seems like a distant memory, as many of the country's top paddlers have swung their focus to the Dusi valley, where the action starts early tomorrow morning.
The Drak never fails to deliver, and this year was no exception.
The only small downside was the water level. The short, green guy, Murphy got involved with the rainfall.
After a number of months with the river running at superb levels, some days even at flood level, the clouds disappeared the week before the race, and the river dropped faster than Squirrel's popularity ratings.
Fortunately there was still a lot of run off from inlets lower down, and the bottom section of the race course was flowing at an excellent level. This was fantastic for the newly-reversed first day, and even tubs of lard like myself managed to get through unscathed.
The racing at the sharp end was as competitive as ever, with both the men's and women's leaders clutching onto very slender leads.
Andy Birkett looked like he was heading for his 10th Drak victory when he managed to hold off a charging Hamish Lovemore.
Christie McKenzie just managing to pip Nix Birkett by a couple of seconds.
The myriad of prayers for rain after the first day were only partly answered, and then, only to annoy the golfers, who were taking part in the main event of the weekend.
With the river level being too low to paddle the top section comfortably, the organisers were forced to hold the race on a shortened version of the first day.
Many were nursing the after effects of a great Saturday night party at the Underberg country club.
For the leaders, however, there was still work to be done.
Christie managed to hold onto her slender lead, and held off a game Nix Birkett in an end sprint, after neither had been able to open any sort of gap over the other.
The same had happened to the leaders of the men's race, except that Hamish managed to reverse his fortunes and deny Andy the elusive 10th win, relegating Andy to join his wife with a silver medal.
The crew from Slummies survived a last minute appeal, and were eventually handed the golf trophy after the one man jury decided in their favour.
Once again, the small organising committee came out of their boots to put on an incredibly good value event, in one of the most scenic locations anyone could ever wish to compete in.
This time tomorrow we will know if Andy is on his way to, yet another Dusi victory.
Partnered by the young East London star, Matt Fenn, Andy is looking to creep even closer to the record number of wins held by the legendary Graeme Pope-Ellis.
I, for one, never thought that this amazing record would ever be in danger, especially with the ever improving standard of so many of the leading competitors.
Gone are the days when the race was won by an hour or so. One small slip up nowadays and a swarm of talent will gobble you up.
In my book, Andy and Matt must go into the race as favourites. To be honest though, there are at least another five crews that would not raise suspicion if they were to be in the lead after the first day. Even a top 10 gold is going to be hard fought in the men's race.
The absence of Christie McKenzie has blown open the women's field, with possible crews of Jenna Ward/Nix Birkett and Hillary Bruss/Bridgitte Hartley being amongst the favourites, together with Abby Solms and Jessica Behn.
Many of the top male crews are going to have their noses put out of joint by the mixed doubles pairing of Hank and Pippa McGregor.
Due to the level of water contamination close to Pietermaritzburg, the organisers have taken the decision to start the race at Bishopstowe Hall once again. The A batch being divided into batches of 20 boats, which will start 3 minutes apart, in the hopes that this will alleviate some of the predicted congestion on the narrow paths just after the start.
The weather is set to be cloudless and hot, and competitors will be grateful for the 6am start. |
