Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
McGregor’s eyes tell a frustrating story
THE well- oiled machine of Andy Birkett and Lance Kime put down a huge marker going into day three of the Dusi Canoe Marathon on Inanda Dam today after they more than doubled their day one lead yesterday.
Birkett and Kime now lead Hank McGregor and Jasper Mocke by more than eight minutes and look set to clinch the title, barring any mishaps.
In order to get a true understanding of how impressive the leaders’ day two performance was, one only needed to look into the competitive eyes of McGregor at the top of the perilous Nqumeni Hill portage.
Having made up time on Birkett and Kime’s overnight lead heading up Nqumeni, McGregor and Mocke were informed that the splits were going back in favour of the leaders. An angry shake of the head told a story of a pair that were trying their hardest but were still being bested.
The day started well for McGregor and Mocke, who admitted it was their strategy to go hard from the start to cut into the lead. At Second Saddle portage, 3: 37 overnight had turned to 3:19; then even more encouraging, at Gauging Weir, a further seven seconds had been shaved off.
At Nqumeni, however, the time switched, but it was only only a 30-second turn-around, although it was the beginning of the end for McGregor and Mocke’s chase.
Coming across Inanda Dam, Birkett and Kime unsurprisingly powered into first place in 2:37.40. The stopwatches were started to see how far back the challengers were, and it was over eight minutes before McGregor and Mocke finally crossed.
“We managed to close the gap by the bottom of Marianni Foley and then it seemed like the clock started going the other way, and when we got to the dam we were about five minutes- thirty behind,” McGregor said. “We tried our hardest and we weren’t racing for second, we were trying to catch them.”
For the day two winners, the eight minutes was as surprising but far more pleasant news.
“I was scared going into today, to be honest,” Kime said. “Hank and Jasper have sorted us out in a few of the pre-races this season so I came into today just hoping that we don’t see them.”
The final podium position produced an exciting sprint finish, as two of the races better running teams duked it out to cross the line first. Overnight third-placed Sbonelo Khwela and Banetse Nkhoesa were caught just short of the line thanks to a stunning performance from the Houston brothers, Andrew and Alan, who were fifth on day one.
The women’s race saw another strong showing from leaders Anna Koziskova and Abby Solms who managed to extend their 14-minute lead to 20 despite things not going all their way.
“Just after the start, some guys were obviously in a rush. They came flying down a rapid, drove straight into our rudder and bent it 90 degrees, which caused us problems for the rest of the day,” Solms said.
Despite the problems, Solms has her maiden Dusi title insight, after placing second six times from 2009 to 2014.