BYLINE: Tommy Ballantyne
THE first day of paddling in the Hansa Powerade Fish River K2 Canoe Marathon is never short on drama and this year's 27th running of the Eastern Cape Classic more than lived up to that reputation, especially at the first major hurdle half-an-hour into the race at the notorious Keith's Flyover Rapid.
At times the scene more resembled an aquatic battle of Hollywood proportions than a canoe race as paddlers were separated from their boats in numbers by the turbulent waters of the Fish River as the 26 cumec water release was funnelled into a gorge less than five metres in width.
The very first casualties were the second-placed German former world wild water champions, Max Hoff and Stephan Stiefenhoefer, who contrived to plunge the nose of their boat under the rear of the race leaders, McGregor and Van der Walt, in the approaches to the Flyover.
This was a disastrous move on the part of the Germans who rolled out of control and spilled into the river, losing their paddles and boat in the process, and with them any hope of continuing.
The disgruntled Hoff seemed to apportion the lion's share of the blame on McGregor/Van der Walt but, as in Grand Prix racing, the leader always has the advantage and the pursuer must take his chances.
The 46km first leg of the race got off to a false start and at the recall McGregor/Van der Walt were caught flat-footed and ended up well down the A Batch field.
By dint of sheer hard work they closed in on the Germans and the Eastern Cape home pair of Ryan and Greg Louw of Cradock.
'We had a great portage over the dam wall,' said McGregor, 'and shot up to forth place and by Toast Rack low level bridge just before the Flyover we had gone into the lead.
'Going into Keith's we were pushed to the side and hit the stopper wave dead centre.
'I heard a shout and the Germans ploughed into us from the bottom.
'I thought, that's it, there has got to be a hole in the bottom.
'But when I looked back to shout at the Germans they were under the water and I guess that was the race for them.'
The Louw brothers subsequently shot the troublesome rapid without mishap behind McGregor/Van der Walt along with six other pairs including Michael Arthur/Nick Stubbs and Douglas Bird/Nick Burden.
It was fairly plain sailing from there with the Louw brothers gradually closing the gap on McGregor/Van der Walt to finish side-by-side with them at the end of the stage at Knutsford Bridge in a time of two hours 49 minutes 21 seconds.
Third place was filled by Bird/Burden in 2:52:18, fourth by Ernest van Riet/Heinrich Schloms in 2:54:45 and fifth by Arthur/Stubbs in 2:57:04.
Notable for their absence were pre-race favourites and newly-crowned World K2 Marathon Champions, Ant Stott and Cam Schoeman, who withdrew citing fatigue and ill health.
The women's race also had its share of drama at the Flyover with the leaders, Carol Joyce/Bridgitte Hartley and Alexa Lombard/Jen Hodson both parting company with their boats and taking a swim.
Third-placed Abbey Miedema/Michelle Eray chose the safer portage route and were then overtaken by defending champions, Michala Mruzkova/Katerina Vacikova of the Czech Republic at the put-in downstream.
The Czechs went on to win the stage in 3:07.02 with Miedema/Eray 48 seconds adrift in second place, Cole/ Hartley third and the Cradock U18 sisters, Suzette and Hanre Maree fourth in 3:18:30.
Today's 36km second and final stage from Knutsford to Cradock includes three testing weirs in the last third of the stage.
McGregor said: 'Anything can happen tomorrow. They are on their home ground and we could let them do all the work and hope to out-sprint them, which we should be able to do, but you never know. We will just hope for the best.'
