GAUTENGERS AT SA MARATHONS K1 – RACE REPORT/FEEDBACK
What an exciting weekend of racing in all ages, on the awesome new World Marathon Course – well done to all who participated, achieved, enjoyed, and supported!!
Gautengers looked good in all different categories and flew our flag proudly !
Some feedback on their achievements herewith – starting with the ladies of course…. with no senior ladies racing, our lady finishers were in the Under 23 girls with Morgan Ziervogel (JCC) finishing in 4th, in 2:09:26 with Holly Spencer (Dabs) 5th, in 2:09:31…..Asanda Ndlovu (SOW) finished 7th in 2:31.
In the Master class Women’s race it was Anna Clifford Arwidi (Dabs) who led the Gauteng field finishing as 2nd Sub Master female in 1:51 clinching silver medal!
Caroline Filmalter (WAT) was the 3rd Veteran lady bringing home a bronze, finishing in 2:04, followed by the next 4 Gauteng paddlers :
Katarzyna Lapacz (FLCC) – 4th SGM in 2:05,
Hanli Bezuidenhout (CEN) 4th Vet in 2:08,
Minnie Kretzchmar (DABS) 2nd GM in 2:09 another Silver for our master ladies, and Jessica Booyzen (WAT) finished as 5th Vet in 2:21
Our Gauteng Para Canoeists also did us proud with Jonathan Wing (ACD) racing in the Under 23 age category finishing in 1:11 while Constant Olivier (FLO) finished his race in 1:14 in the Sub Grand Master age group.
Our Senior men were Michael Arthur and Michael John Robb (DABS) who finished 7th and 8th respectively in 2:29:01, and 2:29:49, against an extremely strong field of Andy Birkett, Hank McGregor, Jakob Adam etcetc!!
Wayne Jacobs won the Sub Veteran Men’s category (DABS) in 1:46:42, an exciting gold medal, with Alex Roberts bringing in a 3rd podium position after Ant Stott, in 1:47 (Dabs). Elton Du Preez (CEN) finished in 2:02 in 10th place in that age category.
Piers Cruickshanks (Dabs) finished as 2nd Veteran, in 1:47:39 – one second behind Jacques Theron, with Dave Hamilton-Brown on the 3rd podium in 1:47:57 – more silver and bronze ware while Kelvin Byres and Jason Brown finished 7th and 9th respectively (Dabs) in 1:53 and 2:19.
Michael Stewart was the 3rd Sub Master men’s finisher (ERK) in 1:49, another bronze! with Gustav Smook (LOW) finishing 6th in 1:54, and Barry Painting (Dabs) 8th in 2:01. Andre Zandbergh (WAT) was 11th in 2:04 and Nicholas Warren (Dabs) in 2:09 as the 12th finisher.
The Master Men top Gauteng finisher was Bradley Fisher, 8th, (Dabs) in 1:59 with Willem Landman (Cen) 10th finisher in 2:01, and Anton Nel (VIC) 12th in 2:20.
Colin Wilson led the Sub Grand Master men finishing in 1:32 (Dabs), (Another gold!) with Ronald Pronk (Cen) finishing 6th in 1:39, and while Radoslaw Olszewski (ERK) shows as 11th SGM finisher in 1:56, I am sure he was the top C1 finisher!
Theo Smith finished 2nd (Cen) in the Grand Master Men’s race in 1;33, going home with a silver medal, with Chris Visser (Dabs) finishing 4th in 1:39, Bruce Clark (Dabs) 9th in 1:44 and Graham Holm (Dabs) 10th in 1:50. Peter O Connor (Dabs) was the Gauteng Sub Great Grand Master finisher in 5th, a time of 1:45, with Claude Graham (Dabs) finishing as 2nd Great Grand master in 2:01.More medals!
Gustav Jnr Smook (LOW) was the top Gauteng finisher in the Boys under 16 / Under 18 youth category finishing in 1:55 as 8th Under 16, with Liam Stewart (ERK) 8th Under 18, in 1:58, and Zanenhlanhla Mbala (SOW) 12th Under 16 in 2:00. Tristan Trican (FLCC) finished as 11th Under 18 in 2:01, with Nicolas Prinsloo (LIK) 14th Under 16 in 2:15.
Finlay Leask (Dabs) was the 2nd place podium finisher / silver medallist in the Under 14 boys, with Adrian Rodd (Dabs) finishing as 9th Under 14 in 1:15 and Eben van der Westhuizen (CEN) 10th Under 14 in 1:18.
The very young Gauteng paddlers who are our future hopes, achieved a number of podium positions which included Ameerah Hank (FLO)- a first podium position and gold, in the Under 12 guppy girls in 0:39, while Aiden Honke (Dabs) and Ethan Duncan (Dabs) brought in a silver and bronze medal in the Under 8 boys finishing in 0:14:01, and 0:14:02…… with Kai Davis (Dabs) Finishing as 5th Under 8 in 0:14:15. A close race!
Jess Webber (Dabs) was the 6th place finisher in the Under 10 guppy boys in 0:26, while Lyton Oelofse (Lik) clinched the Under 12 3rd place Bronze medal podium position in 0:36.
David Brown (FLO) and Theo Dreyer (Dabs) finished in 5th and 6th in the under 12 race in 0:38 and a few seconds between them while Nicolaas Swart (Dabs) finished in 0:38:48 in 9th place and Sean van der Westhuizen (CEN) in 13th, in a time of 0:41.
Jo-ane Prinsloo (LIK) brought home bronze with a 3rd podium in Girls Under 14 in 1:10, with Kamilah Hank (FLO) finishing 5th in under 14 in 1:16, Sisanda Mthabela (FLO) 7th Under 14 in 1:19, and Tinyiko Mahwayi (SOW) 10th Under 14 in 1:25.
Megan Oelofse (LIK) and Alexis Rich (Dabs) finished their Under 16 race in 3rd and 4th position in 1:50 and 1:51 respectively, with Sinazo Mnqokoyi (Sow) finishing as 6th Under 18 girl in 2:16.
We were there Gauteng…. we took some podiums and some medals and came home with pride!
Well done.
Jennie Dallas
GCU PR
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