13 June 2005

Shaun Rubenstein and Alexa Lombard were crowned the king and queen of South African marathon paddling after a weekend of thrilling racing at the SA Marathon Championships.

Both paddlers pulled off the rare feat of winning both the singles and the doubles titles, on a course set up on the Keurbooms River that is intended to replicate the course for the World Marathon Championships in Perth in October.

Cold windy conditions tested the paddlers over the two days of the competition, which saw some intense tactical racing throughout, with places in the national team to the world championships at stake.

Rubenstein retained his K1 title in a drama-laced race with Hank McGregor and rising young Cape star Simon van Gysen.

Final sprint
On the final portage, McGregor nearly capsized at the put-in, and took on board a lot of water, which then had to be emptied. Van Gysen and Rubenstein seized the opportunity and tried to break away. However, McGregor's legendary sprint speed allowed him to grind back onto the bunch, but despite several attempts to take the lead in the final sprint, he was held off by Rubenstein at the line.

Capetonian Alexa Lombard dominated the women's singles race, and came comfortably off the front bunch of Abbey Miedema and Nikki Mocke to retain her title, with Mocke taking silver.

In the doubles' race, Rubenstein raced with Shaun Biggs, who had just jetted back to South Africa after competing in the Wild Water World Championships in Wales. The duo had not been training together at all, and was viewed as having only an outside chance for the title against a strong field.

Dog-eat-dog battle
They were locked in a dog-eat-dog battle with three other crews, the KZN father and son crew of Hank and Lee McGregor, Gauteng's Michael Mbanjwa and Hein van Rooyen, and the Cape duo of Dawid Mocke and Graeme Solomon.

Going into the final lap, the four were still together. It ended in a thrilling end sprint in which Rubenstein and Biggs edged out the McGregors.

A protest was lodged by Mocke and Solomon after the finish, objecting to the start of the race. The protest committee decided that the start complaint would not affect the final results, but has invited the four boats concerned to attend the invitation final trial this coming weekend to sort out which two boats will represent South Africa in Perth in October.

Massive margin
In the women's K2 race Alexa Lombard and Donia Kamstra blitzed the field to win by a massive four-minute margin from fellow Capetonians Kim Rew and Nikki Mocke.

In the juniors' races, Amanzimtoti schoolgirl Tiffany Kruger also achieved the elusive double, by winning the singles race, and on Sunday adding the K2 crown with partner Kelly Howe, who was the runner up in the singles’ race.

Durbanite Jonno Bennett took the boys singles title in a close race with Stephen Bird and Lance King, while the K2 title went to Chris Couve and under-16 star Ant Collopy.

The event also saw the full range of veterans and masters classes raced, with 53-year-old Lee McGregor stealing the headlines. He entered to race in the sub-masters category, despite the fact that he is a full master, and went on to register the fastest K1 time of all the masters and veterans and sub-veterans.

The full team for the world marathon championships and the Masters Cup will be made known after the final deciding invitation trial at Nagle Dam over the weekend of 18 – 19 June.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

Senior Men K1

	Alexa Lombard in action during the 2005 SA Marathon Championships in Plettenburg Bay (Photo: Canoeing South Africa)

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