Abbey Wins Wild Water First Stage

The 62km opening day of the Isuzu Berg River Canoe Marathon from Paarl to Zonquasdrift was raced on a very full and rising Berg river, and despite an eleventh-hour rule change for women paddlers, South Africa wild-water canoeing queen Abbey Miedema comfortably conquered all for a commanding early first place.

With the torrential rains that have hammered the Cape Peninsula pounding the race all day, Miedema raced a flawless race to set up a four-minute lead over seventeen-year old Epworth schoolgirl Abie Adie, with local star Lindi-May Harmsen in third position, seven and a half minutes back.

Despite her solid lead, Miedema was fuming at being compromised by the controversy over the unexpected change of the established rule, which previously allowed women to ride the slip waves of male paddlers that they are paddling with.

"I will never ever do this race again if they expect a female paddler to paddle 240km on her own," said Miedema. "Every male paddler trains for this race knowing that it is all about paddling in bunches to get through the long stages, especially the 75km third day. Why now change it for the women?"

"If they want to go that route, then it must be done well in advance of the race, so that everyone knows about it and can decide whether or not they want to do that race, and then the women must start in their own batch," said the three-times winner of the women’s title.

"It also makes the incentive encouraging women to finish as close as possible to the men’s winner a mockery," she added. "And, if they put a rule like this in place, then they must be able to enforce it, which I have my serious doubts about," she added.

The heavy rains would make the third and fourth days tactically crucial to the outcome of the race, as the Berg river enters the flatter areas of the Swartland, where it overflows into vleis and pans frequently, offering opportunities for paddlers that have done their homework to take important shortcuts, often through neighbouring farmlands.

Thanks to the new Berg Dam, the full river provided excellent racing conditions for the long first stage, which would otherwise have resulted in a serious flood on the river, positing very dangerous conditions. But as it was it was not flooded, the full river mostly flowed within it’s banks.

Contenders are expecting the relatively short 46km second stage from Zonquasdrift to Bridgetown, which starts at 9 a.m, to be raced at breakneck speed, allowing the team competition to come into play in an intriguing sub-plot to the race.