Breede River Marathon
Expecting low rivers it was great to see some of the Breede Rivers tributaries carrying good water the afternoon before the race.
For the start of day 1 near Robertson the river was flowing at a medium-low level but a lot fuller than what we had for the warm up race 2 weeks earlier. Off the line there were 4 boats away forming the front bunch which ended up sprinting it out for the stage. Graeme and I had a strong finish holding off the challengers of King/Schloms, Bohm/Glass, Rabie/Birkette.
On day 2 the river was up by half a meter and as the front 4 boats went off in elapsed time we knew we were in for an exciting day. With about 600m to go all 4 boats were still together. Rabie/Birkette with the pull, us on the left wave, King/Schloms on the right wave and Bohm/Glass on the diamond.
The afternoon after day one we had come down and spent over an hour checking out the channels before the finish. On a low river only the left channel is open but this is a much slower route than the straighter right hand channel used on a fuller river.
Approaching the finish and with the river being nice and full it was clear that all 4 boats would choose the faster right hand channel. As we paddled closer to the entrance of the right hand channel something really strange happened… The boat on the right started yelling “GO LEFT!”. Surprised we looked around but the yelling continued but now getting a lot more desperate! At the last possible moment all 4 boats cut almost 90 degrees across the river towards the left hand channel. As we committed to the slower left channel the boat that had been shouting for us to go left cut back across the river to the faster right hand channel. But for the 2 stronger boats it was too late to turn and we had to take the longer route.
As the 2 channels rejoined 400m before the finish line my heart sunk as I saw the other 2 boats now with a 60m lead…
The results were as follows: 1st King/Schloms, 2nd Bohm/Glass, 3rd Stott/Solomon, 4th Rabie/Birkette. Slightly unexpected and a little disappointing…
Pre race press
During race press
Post race press
September 8, 2011 at 4:31 am
Sorry Ant you can call it sneaky , I call it brilliant and you should just kick yourself for falling for it.All the best for the WC’s and drop the at the last portage , so not to leave anything to chance for a sprint finish!
September 8, 2011 at 6:31 am
Sneaky/brilliant, call it what you want? What happened at the finish was perfectly legal and yes, I do kick myself for falling for it… It’s just not ideal that we were ‘out-tricked’ and not ‘out-sprinted’ at the end of the race. But like I said there are no rules against such tactics so I suppose well done for having the guts to pull something like that off.
September 9, 2011 at 2:03 pm
A true champion knows exactly what “tactics” can be used. Sad luck Ant, and its a real pitty you couldnt have had a tactical sprint for the finish line.
All teh best for Worlds mate
September 24, 2011 at 10:08 pm
I think the guys that did that was a couple of chickens who didn´t believed on there own ability to paddle
thats only my opinion.
Sitting a long way away, and know nothing about how you normally race down there