Drak Challenge 2009- What a race!

This years 2 day Drak marathon gave us a little taste of everything. Day 1 was raced in extremely challenging low water, technical conditions. Overnight rains resulted in fantastic river levels for day 2 which made this longer stage far more enjoyable.

Mike Arthur and Ryan Louw were first off the mark in the Le Mans start on day 1 but after they managed to get themselves in a bit of a tangle Len Jenkins and I managed to sneak past. Len and Hank and I made an early break away from the rest of the field and bashed our way over and between the thousands of rocks that make up the steep and technical upper section of the Umzimkulu River. Hank dropped off the pace after about half an hour; I’m guessing being a bit heavier than us was a bit of a disadvantage…

Len and I stuck together all the way through to the end of the stage with Len claiming the stage victory and me on his wave. Almost 2 min back was Hank and Grant Van der Walt.
Although the river was really low the water was crystal clear making it a really special paddle through the pristine Drakensberg Mountains. I am sure that everybody would agree that this is one of the world’s most beautiful rivers.

On the morning of day 2 the paddlers were greeted by a much fuller and slightly browner river lifting the excitement levels up a few notches. Len and I were off together in elapsed time with Hank and Grant chasing hard starting 2 min later. Hank unfortunately damaged his boat and had to withdraw leaving Grant on his own to try and hunt us down. The race pace set by Len and I seemed pretty fast but no matter how hard we went young Grant was still managing to reel us in. With about 8km to go Grant had closed a minute and a half on us, an amazing effort.
As we negotiated the final rapid in the bottom gorge I had about a boat length lead over Len so decided to put the hammer down. I picked up to a flat out sprint and Len stuck about 15 meters behind me for about 10 minutes. Eventually my hard work paid off and his boats nose slowly began to fall away. By the finish line I managed to open up a 40 second lead over Len. Grant had the fastest time for the day coming in only 5 seconds behind Len. This was my 6th Drak victory but it feels like it has been a while since my last one as Len has been dominating everyone in this race over the past few years.
Press release 1
Press release 2
Pre-race press 1
Drak Challenge Website

High Performance Centre- Pretoria

I took a two week break after Dusi so that my body could fully recover again before starting some serious training for the long season ahead. We are now up in Pretoria with the squad for some scientific testing as well as a bit of tough training. It’s good to all be together again and the intensity of the sessions is already noticeably higher. In the group we have Ruby, Cam, Burden, Stubbs, Waterworth and Bridge. Marcus Melck is doing a great job as Ruby’s new coach, his eye for technique improvement as well as his ideas about training are very exciting. It is also very reassuring to have the experience of Attila to call on at all times. This is without a doubt going to be an amazing week. It is scary to think that some of our competitors are getting this kind of treatment all year round… But hey, we South Africans are a tough breed and no matter what we’ll make sure that come World Champs in September there are bound to be one or two boats bringing home some medals.