Birkett smashes record to win 5th Dusi

Published Feb 21, 2015

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Durban - Andy Birkett smashed the Dusi canoe marathon record on his way to clinching a fifth title with a dominant display on the final stage between Inanda Dam and Blue Lagoon in Durban on Saturday.

The 24-year-old became the first paddler to ever finish the K1 or singles classification race in a sub-eight hour time after clocking seven hours, 55 minutes and 35 seconds (7:55.35), shaving almost five minutes off the previous mark.

That record of 8:00.29 was set in 2013 by defending champion Lance Kime, who also came close to bettering the time by finishing a distant second in 8:00.46, over five minutes behind.

Sbonele Khwela, bidding to become the first black paddler to win the individual title, had to settle for third after posting 8:03.47.

He was followed by Thulani Mbanjwa (8:15.02), one of the pre-race favourites alongside the top three, while Andrew Houston (8:31.27) came in fifth.

But the day belonged to Birkett, who started out the final stage, which is the shortest of the race at 36 kilometres, with a healthy near-five minute advantage.

A superb surge of power paddling over the final stretch of Inanda Dam helped him stretch that lead even further early on in stage three.

By the time he had reached the Tops Needle rapid, about five kilometres in, he had already moved over six minutes in front of Kime.

And when Khwela got to the same point, he saw his margin overnight of just under 10 minutes stretched to beyond the 10-minute mark.

With first prize seemingly a formality, attention turned to the battle for second, and with Kime struggling over the Burma Road Portage, Khwela was quickly gaining.

At the top of the hill, the gap was significantly down to under two minutes, almost 60 seconds less than the start of the stage.

That was slashed to 40 seconds at the Pumphouse Weir - the point where Khwela blew his chance of winning the race two years ago when he fell out of his boat - before being cut to as little as 15 seconds at Silver Pipes.

But the third-placed man was eventually three minutes behind Kime, whose strength, like Birkett, lies on flat water paddling, which mainly made up the final few kilometres of the Mgeni River.

In the women's race, Laura O'Donoghue ended years of heartbreak, when she was thrice runners-up, by taking the title in an overall time of 9:40.21.

She finished over half-an-hour in front of Cana Peek, while Jenna Ward came in third place.

Sapa

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