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| Just before the weir |
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| Gav supplying the power |
Luckily with the Berg winds PUMPING the weather was super warm not like previous years were you freeze to death as soon as you hit the notorious weir!
It was a lemarn start which means we had to stand out our boats before we could start. As soon as John Oliver gave us the normal "Ready-Go!" Signal Gavin Shuter and myself were in our boats chop-chop. Put on our splashies and headed into the weir in first place. After successfully negotiating the weir we settled into a bunch of three which then later turned into a bunch of 2 after a few more intervals, consisting of Len Jenkins and Dewald Hattingh and Gavin and myself. The race was super chilled most of the way until the short portage around some weir we are not allowed to shoot. With the power from behind, kindly supplied by Gavin Shuter, we got out first and had a super fast portage to put in first with about a 20m lead. After a couple of intervals we couldn't shake off the charging Duo of Len and Big D. And the finish came down to an end sprint. We were pulling with 1km to go and were first into the last bit of channels but just couldn't match the speed of the other crew and came in second on the wave.
Day 2
Beacuse of the super strong Berg winds which were blowing the start was moved off the Dam and now started below the Dam wall. Which means there wasn't gonna be any portage which could have helped Gav and myself a fraction. The water on Day2 was rather low. Once Johnny O did his thing, a big group consisting of about 10 boats or so formed. But after a few intervals for a good spot into the channels it was shrunk down to 3- Len & Big D, Gav & Myself and Thulani Mbanjwa & Mmeli Cele. The race was SUPER short because of the new start so it was a short dash to the finish. The exact same thing happened as the previous day and we ended up 2nd for the day which put us 2nd overall for the 2 day race and 1st U23.
Well done to Len and Big D for the win, and a super strong partner Gavin Shuter. And big thanks to the Schoemans for hosting us over the long weekend!
