The K2 team of Abbey Miedema and Alexa Lombard will pose a grave threat to any of the other 300 women participants aiming to win the 2008 Hansa Powerade Dusi Canoe women’s title, with the 2007 defending champion in last year’s K1 event well established in her canoeing team-up with Lombard.
Speaking to gsport ahead of this year’s event taking place from Thursday from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, Dusi spokesman Ray de Vries admits that Miedema has brought a greater focus on women paddlers: "Most people that I talk to are surprised that Abbey is so lady-like.
"The general assumption is that paddlers have to be brawny. She is not like that at all. She has definitely added a lot of value to the Hansa Powerade Dusi, and a number of ‘recreational’ paddlers in the Dusi have been inspired by her, and started the sport because of that inspiration," said de Vries.
In the annual three-day marathon event that no top paddler would risk missing, heat will be one of the biggest factors affecting the participants’ performance, amid warnings of temperatures reaching mid-to high 40’s, added to the well-known KwaZulu-Natal humidity: "Dehydration will be a very real issue this year," said de Vries.
The Dusi phenomena has a big focus on charity, a dedication that has brought results for local communities, and the event itself: "The Hansa Powerade Dusi story is all about relationship. I have been marketing the event for 14 years now and it was not long ago (5 years or so) that we still had huge security challenges.
"This was sorted out by forging a very good relationship with all the communities of the Valley of a Thousand Hills," continued de Vries. "Then the ball started rolling when we were seen as genuinely and sincerely giving back to the communities, and them experiencing ownership of the event.
Visit the Dusi Canoe website for further details on its charities work, including the amazing R750,000 taken in for charity this year, with beneficiaries including the Starfish Aids Orphans, Environment (Dusi Umgeni Conservancy Trust [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][D.U.C.T] and the SPCA.
For one 32-year old lady, it will be a real milestone as she is participating in her 20th consecutive Dusi: "I did my first one when I was 13 years old with my dad John. I had already been paddling for a few years by then" said Lorna Oliver from her farm in Pietermaritzburg.
Oliver comes from the well known Oliver canoeing family who have been involved in South African canoeing for decades. Her father, John has some thirteen Dusi’s under his belt and together with his wife, Margie, is very involved in administration of canoeing.
It all started in the late eighties when Lorna’s father took her paddling in the Dusi river before Camps Drift was built. "It was crazy in those days as we would all have to train in single file as the river was so narrow. My most memorable Dusi would be the first one I did with my dad in 1989. It was special."
Oliver has finished 3rd in a K1 (singles) year and finished first in the mixed doubles with Deon Bruss in the early nineties.
She admits that she does not train as hard as she used as her farming takes up a lot of her time. She will be paddling this weeks’ 20th celebration Dusi with her boyfriend Kevin.
Her parents, John and Margie, are justifiably very proud of her and will be on hand to welcome her home at the finish in Blue Lagoon in Durban on Saturday.
"We are absolutely delighted and very proud of her. A father with two daughters would normally have a daughter that would do ballet, netball or some other typical girls sport if they did sport at all. I am so happy that, without any pushing from us as parents, both my daughters ended up canoeing" said proud father John.
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