Past champs vie for Breede title
NO FEWER than nine former Breede River Canoe Marathon winners since the turn of the century will line up for the 2016 edition of the two-day race from Robertson to Swellendam when the action gets under way on Saturday.
Last year’s winners, Graeme Solomon and Stu MacLaren, will combine with former champions Greg Louw and Jasper Mocké, respectively, this time around.
For Solomon, a win this year would bring him his fifth Breede title — all with different K2 partners — while his partner, the experienced and powerful Louw, hopes to add to his 2014 crown.
MacLaren hopes his pairing with surfski sensation and 2013 Breede winner Mocké will see him continue his transition from the top of the Under-23 age group, into the upper echelons of the senior ranks of marathon racing in SA.
These two crews contain four of the six most recently crowned champions and appear the early favourites to go at it hammer and tongs over the 70km race.
Both crews will, however, be chased hard by some highly talented K2 teams.
Louw van Riet and Gavin Louw have spent much time together in training — both in K1s ahead of the Berg River Canoe Marathon in July and now in a K2 for the Breede — and will be eager to throw their hat into the ring for a podium finish.
Sean Rice is another who knows what it takes to win on the Breede River having reigned victorious with Solomon in 2012 and he and his younger brother, Kenny, will undoubtedly bring plenty of power to this year’s clash.
Lance King and PW Basson have reunited once again for this year’s race, having achieved Breede success as a pair back in 2009, while King’s fellow 2011 race winner, Heinrich Schloms, will too be part of this year’s mix, this time partnering John de Villiers.
Another two crews with top five aspirations are Brandon van der Walt and Maritzburg College junior Hamish MacKenzie, as well as the University of Cape Town’s Under-23 emerging talent, Tyron Maher, rowing with the vastly experienced Edgar Boehm Jnr.