Team RSAWEB Dominates Dusi

January 24, 2008

Pic: Rory at back, Rich up front leading A Batch on day 2.

This past week, Team RSAWEB paddler Rory Van Zyl partnered with Rich McMartin and dominated the Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon. 2008 was a K2 (double canoe) year and Rory set out with friend Rich to enjoy a weekend in KZN. Although Rich carried an ankle injury going into the race, they decided to do it anyway and dominated when on the water, Rory said: “We struggled on the first day with all the running, Rich could not run with his ankle so we walked all the uphills and I tried to run with the boat on the downhill myself, damn hard though with a K2. We ended up 116th after day1 and won our batch every day. We were strong on the water, and did not have one boat coming past us the whole race which was cool. We also only took one swim on day 2 at a section called Tombi, which was a bit of a beast and claimed most boats that went over including Martin Dreyer, the eventual winner.”

Day 3 was the their best day and they shot a rapid call top needle right from the top and made it. 95% of the field had to portage half way down then get in so this gave them the edge and gained a few places. Ending up 74th is a great achievement out of 933 starters and Rory felt the team could have got a top 50 if they had been more competitive in the running legs, of which the Dusi has a lot.

Well done Guys, and Look out for the team at the Argus Cycle tour in Cape Town on the 9th of March where more weekend warriors will be in action. RSAWEB will also have a supporters tent on Suikerbossie, so join us for a drink and enjoy the action with us.