Rice in hot form at King of Bay event
SEAN Rice produced arguably his most impressive performance of his stellar career when he trounced all-comers at the McCarthy Toyota King of the Bay Challenge which doubled as the Springbok National Trials. Rice is the reigning ICF World Surfski Champion and will be looking to defend his title in Tahiti come October this year.
I’ve always battled a bit in Durbs for some reason so it is great to come here and put in a decent performance!” said Rice afterwards.
“Having never raced King of the Bay before, I’d only heard things from other guys and most had said that it was just a flatwater bunch paddling for the first seven kilometres and then the real racing starts once you get to the harbour mouth.
“That wasn’t really the case today though. The group splintered into a group of six pretty early on and we all soon realised that there were only five positions up for grabs for Worlds so it was pretty tough going.
“There was actually quite a lot going on with the water in the harbour today too, it was a bit like a potato patch out there and then there was plenty to work with once you got out the harbour mouth and headed down to the turn can,” added the Think Kayaks athlete.
While the Western Cape is still very much home for Rice, Cape Town has seen very little of its world champion of late as Rice looks to ensure he is in peak shape come October.
“I’ve been in Australia with my girlfriend, Emily, for the past two months where I’ve been working with the sprinters over there and that has just been next level stuff!” explained Rice.
“I had been paddling the same stretch of water with the same group of people in Cape Town for a while and I just needed to freshen things up and I really enjoyed my time in ‘Oz’.
“I worked really hard over there and I’ve got another big month’s paddling travels ahead of me now so it was great to finally get the chance to test myself in race conditions and gauge just where I am at the moment as we all look to build towards Tahiti.”
Finishing unusually off the pace was Jasper Mocke in second with paddling icon Hank McGregor in third. East London’s Nicole Russell won the ladies division and will be going all out to become the next women’s world champion.