Lance Kime waves to the crowd as he crosses the line to claim his first title in The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon. Photo: Anthony Grote/Gameplan Media
The third day of The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon saw heroics and heartbreak for the leading men as Lance Kime raced his way to his maiden victory in the three-day journey between Pietermaritzburg and Durban on Saturday.
In the wake of Kime’s performance, the winner of the first two stages, Sbonelo Zondi, watched his fairytale go up in smoke as he had to settle for third.
Having started a minute and eight seconds apart, Zondi and Kime swapped positions three times throughout the day with Zondi poised to become the first ever black paddler to win a K1 title in the race’s history.
It wasn’t to be though as he watched his slender lead slip away when a rare error at the daunting Pumphouse rapid saw him take a devastating swim and left the door open for Kime to surge into the lead for the third and decisive time.
Kime capitalised and with just 12km to go he managed to fend off a charging Hank McGregor, who also slipped past Zondi after his disappointing swim, and power home to a remarkable victory.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in this position,” said Kime shortly after crossing the line. “I’ve been working really hard and have probably done the most tripping on the river before Dusi that I ever have and it all just paid off!”
“The support, SMSes and tweets that I have received over the last few days, especially the last 24 hours, with everyone saying to me ‘you can do it’. I didn’t really believe I could do it until everyone told me I could!”
Kime worked hard on the short stretch across Inanda Dam at the start of the day to close the gap between himself and Zondi to just 12 seconds by the time the pair got to the bottom of Tops Needle rapid.
Once Kime hauled Zondi in he worked hard to maximise his lead going into the Burma Road portage. However the world class running abilities of Zondi saw him surge back to the front of the field at the top of Burma Road with a little over a minute and a half separating the two.
“It was a real roller-coaster ride,” explained Kime. “I knew that he was going to be unbelievably strong on Burma Road, so I had to do everything I could to make up time before that and after that.
“When I got to the top of Burma Road, he had run from 20 seconds behind me to nearly two minutes ahead, and that was a lot of time to make up on one hill!
“I knew that it was going to be a very, very tough task to catch him by the finish, but you always keep that hope in the back of your mind. After all it’s the Dusi and I knew there was still Pumphouse (Weir and rapid).
Kime’s effort was both a stage record and an overall race record, the second and third records of a possible four to have fallen in the men’s race this year.
For more info, visit www.dusi.co.za.
FINAL STAGE AND OVERALL
1. Lance Kime (U23) 2:15.38 8:00.29
2. Hank McGregor 2:17.43 8:04.38
3. Sbonelo Zondi 2:22.07 8:05.50
4. Andy Birkett (U23) 2:19.58 8:09.17
5. Thulani Mbanjwa 2:20.46 8:13.11
6. Ant Stott 2:27.25 8:27.52
7. Jason Graham 2:23.45 8:28.44
8. Cam Schoeman 2:26.02 8:30.59
9. Jacques Theron 2:23.43 8:34.40
10. Zonele Nzuza 2:26.48 8:36.46
11. Siseko Ntondini (U23) 2:25.29 8:38.41
12. Loveday Zondi 2:28.45 8:38.42
13. James Speed (U23) 2:21.40 8:38.47
14. Gavin Shuter (U23) 2:25.53 8:39.06
15. Shaun Rubenstein 2:25.03 8:42.00
16. Lucas Mthalane 2:25.08 8:42.00
17. Mmeli Cele (U23) 2:24.04 8:43.18
18. Murray Starr (U23) 2:30.15 8:43.36
19. Travis Wilson (U18) 2:30.23 8:43.36
20. Nhlanhla Cele 2:25.46 8:44.38
