I am very satisfied with the way my weekend went at the SA marathon champs held in Plettenburg Bay. Even though we had dreadfull weather the racing was very intense with all the top marathon paddlers in South Africa ready to give the race a full go. The k1 race broke up into four boats at the first portage (Len Jenkins, Ant Stott, Hank Mcgregor and myself). Ant, Hank and I have all won World Champs before and Len has a World Championship 5th place to his very successfull career so far, so as you can imagine it was a very tough race. Every portage was very fast, but none of us gave an inch and besides for one or two attemps to break the group up on the water, the group stayed in tact untill the end sprint which I managed to win from Len in 2nd, Hank in 3rd and Ant in 4th.

The K2 race was a lot easier with Ant and Myself breaking away from the field with Hank and Grant Vd Walt. The two of us stayed together the whole way untill the end sprint when Ant and I managed to pull away from Hank and Grant. Ant showed a huge amount of courage as he injured his leg on the portages in the K1 race the day before and was really struggling to run during the K2 race, but he really dug deap and came through very strong. On the water Ant and I feel great and I really look forward to racing with him at Worlds this year.

My weekend was made even more special by the fact that I had my beautiful girlfriend and parents there to support me. Its always great to be able to share exciting times with the people you love. Thanks to Brandon for seconding me, Marcus for coaching me and to everyone else on the banks for supporting me throughout both races.