South Africa's most capped marathon canoeist, Graham Bird, has labelled this weekend's SA K2 river championships on the Fish River Marathon in Cradock the most competitive race ever.
Bird, who is a four-times winner of the race, has shortlisted the potential winners to three crews.
"I genuinely think the race will be very, very fast paced, and I believe there will be quite a number of boats in the running at the death. Three local crews will figure. Myself and Hank McGregor, Len Jenkins and Jacques Theron, and Ant Stott and Graeme Solomon," Bird said.
Bird currently holds the record for the K2 race, which he set up with Piers Cruikshanks in 2000. But he is certain that this will be bettered at the weekend.
"The record will fall for sure", he said. "The race will be fast throughout, and there are quite a few top crews that will be able to grind it out for long periods," he added.
He also identified the critical sector as being the tricky section of river that winds through the willow trees above Keith's Flyover rapid, making up the first 8km of the course. "That will decide who is in contention for the title."
The race has tripped up many big names at obstacles such as Keith's Flyover and the now notorious Cradock weir, which has decided the outcome of the last three Fish marathons.
"Mistakes will take out a few top boats again", said Bird. Facing a field like this one, one cannot make a mistake, take a swim, and expect to come back", he said.
The race starts at Grassridge Dam outside Cradock this morning.
Meanwhile, world champion Manuel Busto Fernandes and his Spanish K2 partner Julio Martinez Gomes have been sidelined from the Fish Marathon because they were offloaded from their flight from Madrid to Johannesburg due to overbooking by the Spanish airline Iberia.
A fuming Busto said from Spain that he and Gomes had tried to impress on the Iberia staff in Madrid the importance of their flights. However, they offloaded the pair, and were unable to re-route them via other centres to get to South Africa in time for the race.
"We are all gutted," said race chairman Butch Louw. "Manuel has become a popular part of the race since his great performance last year. He had been really looking forward to the race, and to be denied by an airline overbooking the plane is very, very frustrating. It's not as if he was on standby. He was booked and paid for in a full fare," he added.
Last weekend, Busto won the World Marathon Championships K1 title for the third year in succession, and went on to add another medal with Gomes by finishing third in the K2 race.
He raced to a third in his debut Fish River marathon last year, where his impressive strength and flatwater speed compensated for his lack of experience in rough rivers. - Sapa