Kayak star restores SA’ s K1 control at world champs
While Birkett has mastered the art of river and marathon racing, he is at sea on a surfski tailing his wife
Kayak king Andy Birkett triumphed at the world marathon championships in Portugal last weekend and then, for a spot of downtime, he paddled the Fish River (and won it too).
Such feats might seem Herculean to mere mortals like us, but Birkett, who turns 32 today, plays them down with his self-deprecating humour.
In an interview at OR Tambo International Airport on his way back to East London, Birkett chuckled as he explained how he got into kayaking while a schoolboy at Maritzburg College. “Initially I tried to play cricket and couldn’t catch a cricket ball at junior school so I started paddling. I would always do cross country, and junior school rugby as well.”
The rugby didn’t go much better. “At high school, after I was reserve for the 14th team, I decided rugby was definitely not my strength anymore.”
So he became a paddling superstar instead, winning all the major local crowns along the way, namely the Dusi, Drak, Fish River and Berg River. Birkett’s performance to clinch the world crown, in what is widely regarded as the most competitive men’s K1 marathon contest, re-established SA’s dominance in the event with a total of 10 wins since this started in the 1980s. Spain are on nine.
“I’ve never experienced a marathon race where you’ve got six boats and they’re all in the race right until the last portage,” said Birkett, who took the lead inside the final 80 metres of the 29.80km race to edge Portugal’s José Ramalho by 1.1sec. Defending champion Mads Pedersen of Denmark was third just 0.32 seconds further back.
“There was one move just before the last portage. If I didn’t hold that Danish guy off I would have been in the worst position possible, I don’t think I would have made the podium,” said Birkett, who also narrowly beat Pedersen to win at the World Games in the US earlier this year.
It was Birkett’s second K1 title to add to the seven won by Hank McGregor and Shaun Rubenstein’s single triumph. And when one throws in Kenneth Rice, winner of the world surfski championship this past Wednesday (Birkett’s wife Nicole was fourth in the women’s race), it’s clear that paddling is one of this country’s strongest codes. While most northern hemisphere paddlers focus on kayak sprinting, which is part of the Olympics, SA takes a different route.
“There’s such a culture of doing river races, river marathons, surfski races,” said Birkett of SA. “There’s only one sprint race a year in SA, but almost every second weekend there’s a marathon race, there’s a river race, there’s a surfski race. I think that breeds a culture of high performance in marathon racing.”
McGregor’s dominance on the world stage also helped to lift the standard locally. “You can do any race in the country and you can gauge yourself against Hank,” said Birkett, who is also impressed with the new generation, starring Hamish Lovemore, who won the under-23 K1 world marathon title.
“If he didn’t win the U23s maybe he could have won the senior race — he’s beaten me many occasions before,” said Birkett, who failed to qualify for the SA marathon team last year.
“He could win next year. Ulvard Hart was third [in the U23 race]. That’s amazing depth.”
Birkett, a business consultant, plans to start training for the Dusi next week by increasing his roadwork to prepare for the lengthy portages that total 15km on the opening day.
“The more we paddlers run the more weight we lose, so the slower our top-end sprint is for paddling ... You become a better average-speed paddler but you lose out on that explosive sprinting ability at the end of the race.
“If we were to race world marathons with Dusi fitness and conditioning we’d be nowhere because our sprint is gone,” explained Birkett, who expects to drop 4kg from his current 87kg to get to his Dusi weight.
While Birkett has mastered the arts of river and marathon racing, which use different boats and skills, he admits he lags far behind in surfski. “I’ve broken a few boats along the way, going out in big surf trying to follow my wife, thinking I know what I’m doing.
“I’ve broken boats in half. She is really good on the sea.”
When they’re not working and looking after sons David, 4, and Daniel, 2, relaxation often involves exercise. “Nikki and I are always training. My wife’s family is extremely competitive. We’re always doing a run or a paddle,” said Birkett.
“If we go on holiday it’s like a family training camp. Someone’s cycling at 4am. Then there’ sa run, I go for a run with my brother-in-law which ends up being a race, and then we all get back for breakfast and then there’s a paddle afterwards, that’s also another race,” said Birkett.
Who better to handle another race?
Initially I tried to play cricket and couldn’t catch a cricket ball at junior school, so I started paddling