Andy Birkett is sizing up a fourth consecutive victory in The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon. Photo: Chris van Lennep/Gameplan Media
The 62nd The Unlimited Dusi canoe marathon gets under way at Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday with the best weather and water levels for decades, and both the men’s and women’s races loaded with the best river marathoners in the country.
Steady rains in the province throughout the summer has left all the dams on the route spilling, and for the first time in decades the natural outflows from Albert Falls, Nagle and Inanda dam will guarantee full rivers for the three-day race to Blue Lagoon in Durban.
Andy Birkett stands poised to become the first paddler after the iconic Graeme Pope-Ellis in the seventies to win four back-to-back titles, should he successfully defend his crown this weekend.
The 23-year-old star has taken a low key build-up to the race, cherry-picking the best of his training regime from the past three years, and comes into the race relaxed and confident.
He will need all of that to get the better of a classy men’s field that includes four former world champions, and every winner of the race since Martin Dreyer’s retirement.
Hank McGregor, winner in 2005 and 2006, has been in rampant form this summer and dominated many of the Pre-Dusi races. He has lofty plans for the year, including winning the first ever Surfski world championship title mid-year in Portugal.
Similarly Len Jenkins, who dismantled most of the race records en route to victory in 2001, has been hard to beat in major races, winning the national crown at the Hansa Fish in October, and shading most of the Dusi contenders in The Unlimited Ozzie Gladwin several weeks later.
Thulani Mbanjwa won the race with Martin Dreyer, but for his years of dominating the race, especially on the portages where he is feared as the fastest runner with a boat on his shoulders, he has never won a K1 title, a fact that doesn’t sit comfortably for the product of the Valley of a Thousand Hills.
Ant Stott brings vast experience to the race and knows how to win it. Now a full time entrepreneur, Stott openly admits that he doesn’t have the time to train to the level he believes is needed to be competitive, particularly in an era when Birkett has forced aspirant paddlers to raise their performances.
Stott is tipping a dark horse in this tightly congested race for the podium in the form of Capetonian Shaun Rubenstein. His paddling prowess is highly respected, having taken him to the Olympic Games as a sprinter and a world marathon championships title.
The latter won emphatically as a junior, thanks to being under the wing of Dusi King Graeme Pope-Ellis, and has a great tactically knowledge of the rivers.
The women’s race sports a shorter list of contenders, but should be just as fiercely contested. Robyn Kime comes into the race seeking her fourth title in succession.
