2 October 2006

The fiery international crew of Germans Stephan Stiefenhoefer and Max Hoff produced a record shattering final day of the Hansa Powerade Fish River Canoe Marathon, but were unable deprive Len Jenkins and Hank McGregor of overall victory and the SA K2 title.

The class international team was celebrating, nonetheless, as the powerful Czech duo of Michala Mruzkova and Katarina Vacikova became the first internationals to win the women's race, in the twenty-fifth running of the event, which drew a record entry of 1 830 paddlers.

The men's race came down to a gutsy sprint to the finish over the final 10-kilometres of the stage. The gap between the leaders was visibly narrowing on the final straight to the finish, but Hoff and Stiefenhoefer just weren't able to haul in the experienced but anxious pair of McGregor and Jenkins, who won by five seconds.

'The toughest race of my life'
"If you think the Tour de France time trial is fast, you should've seen this," said an exhausted Jenkins at the finish line. "That was possibly the toughest race of my life. I don't think I've seen such a competitive race in the history of the Fish.

"The German crew is probably the strongest international crew I've ever seen in flowing water," he added. "They were just potent! We had to work really hard to open up a gap on them and then they would catch up again."

The KZN pair was the first crew over the decisive Cradock Weir, 10-kilometres from the finish. "That last stretch turned into a time trial," said Jenkins. "We just had to keep going flat-out to hold off Max (Hoff) and Stephan (Stiefenhoefer)."

Whittled down the lead
Jenkins and McGregor started the stage on elapsed time together with their fellow KwaZulu-Natal crews of Daryl Bartho and Wayne Thompson, and Deon and Sven Bruss. Stiefenhoefer and Hoff wasted no time whittling down their 54-second deficit from the overnight stop at Knutsford.

"The pace from the start was intense," said Deon Bruss. "After about 30 minutes into the race Sven suddenly looked over his shoulder and told us the Germans were closing in. We couldn’t believe it.

"They came past and rattled the bunch," he added. "We were the ones who got rattled the most and eventually fell back. It was Lekker to be part of such a close tight race."

Real break
After the Bruss brothers fell off the furious pace, Stiefenhoefer and Hoff continued to pull hard, but the real break in the front batch came at the Marlow Causeway portage.

"Our problem was at the portage," said an elated Stiefenhoefer at the finish line. "The South Africans were too good on the portages. They run faster than us.

"Hank and Len got a bit of a break at Marlow," he explained. "This last stretch just wasn't long enough for us to catch them again.

Undone by running
"We tried to break away once or twice in the rapids," he added. "It didn't really work though and the other boats came back powerfully. I think on the water they weren't too strong, but on the running they were much better than us.

"Max and I are really happy with second," he added. "It's unbelievable for us. If someone had said before the race that this is how it would've finished we wouldn't have believed them."

Records tumbled as the German crew applied the pressure to the front runners. The stage record was shattered by three minutes 37 seconds, and the overall race record was broken by 54 seconds.

Internationals set women's record
New records were also established in the women's category as the Team Hansa Powerade International crew of Michala Mruzkova and Katarina Vacikova from the Czech Republic became the first international crew in the history of the race to take home the winner's trophy.

The Czech pairing dominated the women's race from the start gun on day one, breaking both stage records and the overall race record by three minutes 33 seconds.

"We're really happy with the win," said Mruzkova. "It's the first time we've paddled K2 together and we really enjoyed this race. It's a great event.

Big water experienced helped
"We were initially afraid of the flatwater sections," added the double Wild Water World Champ. "The South African ladies are particularly good in that area. I think our experience in big water helped us gain time in the rapids."

The only upset for the duo was a swim at Cradock Weir. "We thought we had made it through without a problem, but we just went over at the bottom," she said. "Katarina actually got trapped in the weir and had to be rescued."

Abbey Miedema and Michelle Eray, who were trying to catch the Czechs, also swam at Cradock Weir. They went on to finished second, four minutes behind the Czech duo, and as the first local crew home they took home the South African K2 title.

Age group records
Despite the slow condition of the river, a total of nine records were broken. In the boys' under-18 division Stephan Bird and Cam Schoeman set a new best, in the under-16 boys' by Andrew Birkett and Ben Biggs, and Kelly Howe and Vicky Chiazzari in the women's under-16 category. Dusi King Graeme Pope-Ellis together with David Rawlinson shattered the sub-grand masters' record by 53 minutes.

Kirsty van der Merwe and Danica Vorster reset the women's under-21 record, and under-16 stars' Kayleigh Champion and Robyn Kime also set a new record.

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Hansa Powerade Fish River Canoe Marathon will be remembered as a thrilling contest where records tumbled as some of the best local and international crews pushing one another to their maximum levels.

The record entry field enjoyed hot and dry weather conditions with good water levels over the 82-kilometre two-day course.

RESULTS
(* = New Record)

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	Three-time South African K2 champions Len Jenkins and Hank McGregor (Photo: Canoeing South Africa)

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	Fish River Canoe Marathon  Canoeing South Africa

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