Danish star to head for Dusi

Pietermaritzburg – Danish international paddler Martin Friedrichsen is the latest international star to take on the Dusi Canoe Marathon from February 14 to 16.

The Dane admitted he couldn’t resist the attraction of the worldfamous race through the Valley of a Thousand Hills.

Friedrichsen, 26, races for the Danish national marathon team and has enjoyed taking on races such as the Liffey Descent in Ireland, which offers technical river racing challenges in the forms of rapids and weirs.

It was at this year’s Liffey Descent that he bumped into South African paddler Jenna Ward and the conversation turned to the Dusi.

“The discussion in Dublin with Jenna Ward turned to the Dusi,” recalls Friedrichsen.

“So I said to myself: ‘If not now, when?’

“After I came home, I was so motivated and I wrote to my coach Finn Larsen, telling him I couldn’t take him to Seville next year because I was going to race the Dusi Marathon,” he said.

Friedrichsen has decided that he wants to do his first Dusi in a K2 with an experienced local partner, and he has put out a request on the Dusi website inviting anyone keen to partner him and assist in his preparations for the race to contact him.

“I heard about the Dusi a few years ago, and it sounds like the hardest race ever,” said Friedrichsen from Denmark, where winter has arrived, making training for a February race tricky.

“It motivates me to say ‘Okay, one day I will fly to South Africa, and I will do the Dusi’.

“It will be such a great challenge and experience for me,” he added.

Last year, Hungarian ace Adrian Boros raced to a shock second place in the K2 championship race.

The discussion in Dublin with Jenna Ward turned to the Dusi.

Martin Friedrichsen Danish paddler