3 years ago
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“I have made mistakes in the races and I’ve learnt that we all will make mistakes. I just try to stay calm in the race and just focus on the three days, not just one day, but it’s stressing. Each and every day I wake up and know anything can happen,” he said.
It was the first Dusi race after the 2021 April floods and paddlers had to navigate through the rocky and heavily reshaped uMngeni river.
“In the race I’ve never seen this much water before. This is more than twice the level I’ve ever paddled on this river before so it has been a real challenge (with) a lot more unknown variables than we’ve had to deal with before. Normally, you sort of know what to expect for the race on day two and three but I felt we were all racing as novices especially on the last day, today.”
In the women’s edition, heavy favourite and defending champion Christie MacKenzie cruised to her third successive title with a yet another landslide victory over her peers.
After dominant outings in the first two races, MacKenzie started the final race with a massive 26:56 lead over Olympic medallist Bridgitte Hartley and, despite taking two swims on her way to the finish line, MacKenzie’s win never was never in doubt.
By the end of day three, MacKenzie (8:19:35) finished 26 minutes and 51 seconds ahead of Hartley (8:47:28) in second place with Jordan Peek (8:56:48) completing the podium positions.
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