{"id":18056,"date":"2013-02-15T01:41:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-14T23:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/zondi-claims-first-dusi-stage-for-the-record\/"},"modified":"2013-02-15T01:41:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-14T23:41:31","slug":"zondi-claims-first-dusi-stage-for-the-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/zondi-claims-first-dusi-stage-for-the-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Zondi claims first Dusi stage, for the record"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Sbonelo<\/a><\/p>\n

Sbonelo Zondi powered his way to the front of the field and an overnight lead of 39 seconds after day one of The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon. Photo: Anthony Grote\/Gameplan Media<\/p>\n

The 2013 The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon was set alight by the youth as Sbonelo Zondi and Robyn Kime blazed their way to stage records in the men\u2019s and women\u2019s races on the opening stage of the 2013 race.<\/p>\n

After a solid yet uneventful start by Computershare Change a Life\u2019s Zondi, he caught paddling enthusiasts around the country unawares as he flew past triple defending champ Andy Birkett and the rest of the men\u2019s field.<\/p>\n

And, despite a late surge from Birkett, Zondi never looked back, grabbing a valuable 20-second lead.<\/p>\n

Zondi, having brought in some great form to this year\u2019s class, claimed his maiden K1 first place finish and, understandably, was ecstatic with his efforts, especially having broken the stage record by 39 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very happy about my result. To be the first here at Number Nine (Dusi Bridge) for the first time is great,\u201d said Zondi.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think about trying to break the record. I just tried to race my own race today and the record it just happened but I\u2019m very happy about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe race went the way I was planning. I started well but was a bit off the pace early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group was quite big as i was struggling towards the back of it. I didn\u2019t panic though, I just stuck to Ant and he pulled me to the front group again.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there I just tried to race my own race and pace myself. I told myself there\u2019s a long day ahead, there are long portages and the portages are one of my strengths.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stuck to my plan but at the top of Campbell\u2019s (portage), Martin Dreyer told me that Andy Birkett was already one minute ahead of me. Again, I told myself not to panic and kept just trying to pace myself all the way to Guinea Fowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I caught the guys I knew it was time to go and I put the hammer down to test the guys, to see if they were still strong. I saw Andy Birkett and Lance Kime coming with me, but I didn\u2019t think too much about the race with them at that stage, I just focused on my own plan to get to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have crossed the line first is amazing and I\u2019m so happy. There\u2019s lots still to do tomorrow though and Andy isn\u2019t far behind so I\u2019ll still have work very hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having set the stage record himself in 2011, Birkett had to settle for second, himself going better than his previous best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sbonelo Zondi powered his way to the front of the field and an overnight lead of 39 seconds after day one of The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon. Photo: Anthony Grote\/Gameplan Media The 2013 The Unlimited Dusi Canoe Marathon was set alight by the youth as Sbonelo Zondi and Robyn Kime blazed their way to stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[3258,830,885],"class_list":{"0":"post-18056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-mysport","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-sport","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18056\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}