Making History - First Black Paddlers To Ever Win A Major Canoe Race

In the sweltering heat of the Valley of a Thousand Hills (over 40 degrees from 8am on), my 6 'Change a life' boys raced like true valley warriors. With the help of the rest of the 'Change a life' squad who were assigned to seconding the different crews- filling water bottles with USN rocket fuel, pouring iced water over the well overheated 'engines', feeding and shouting endless encouragement, each 'Change a life' boat crossed the finish line, having redefined their physical limitations and superceding all my expectations, all in podium positions. I pinch myself in disbelief, surely this must be a dream. The only dream there was, is that of Thomas & Eric to win this race, which is no longer a dream but now reality.

WINNERS and 1st doubles crew, Thomas Ngidi and Eric Zondi, had a flawless race, spending the majority of the day building a good lead on the next crews- from 1min40 at Campbells Portage, 4min at Guinea Fowl, 7min at Mission Rapid, to having 14mins to play with going across Inanda Dam and over Burma. But it was on that mountain where they had to dig to those inner reserves. Eric cramped on the summit. He looked down at his legs, irritated they were misbehaving. To punish them, he simply pushed through it, the R30 000 first prize was too good a thing to let slip.

Behind them was non-stop tussling between Michael Mbanjwa/Piers Cruikshanks (cracked their nose of their canoe on day 1), Craig Turton/Kelvin Trautman and Greg/Craig Carter-Browns. The action didn't stop here, as my other 'Change a life' crew of Kwanda Mhlophe and Richard Cele (5th place) set these three boats in their range-of-fire, putting in ahead of all three halfway in the race, after the grueling Ngumeni portage.

With a 2.30min gap at Inanda Dam bridge and with Burma portage looming, a 2nd place finish for Kwanda/Richard looked quite possible. However, the two chasing boats of Craig/Kelvin and Piers/Michael working together across the long flat stretch of Inanda Dam would disadvantage the 'Change a life' crew, who did manage to hold them off but with only a few seconds to spare going into the Third Day, at the Dam Wall portage. A brave but smooth move by Craig/Kelvin, shooting the high risk Tops Needle rapid, saw them move into 2nd place as Kwanda/Richard took the conservative option of putting in halfway down this Rapid. The generous release of water from Inanda Dam (40 cumecs), made for exciting white-water paddling. Kwanda/Richard, ran over Burma Hill, and incredibly held onto their 3rd position, holding off last years winners Michael Mbanjwa and Piers Cruikshanks.