ZOUTKLOOF – Engineering student Joshua Glyn-Cuthbert was given a harsh lesson on just how cruel top-level sport can be at the Berg River Canoe Marathon on Friday.
After two days of fighting for the lead with Hank McGregor, the world’s most successful marathon kayaker, the 22-year-old Maties student was lying second overall at the start of Day 3 from Bridgetown to Zoutkloof. He was part of the front group deep into the 76km Queen Stage when, with about 20km to go, his paddle broke at one of the most remote parts of the race route.
The talented youngster lost more than 30 minutes to the leaders before getting some duct tape from leading woman Neriyah Dill and with the help of a friendly farmer repaired the broken shaft and limped home 15th on the day.
“There were four of us together and we came to a tree in the river,” said a bitterly disappointed Glyn-Cuthbert after finishing. “It was a bit narrow to get through and I saw Jem (Maher) go through a gap in the tree, and I followed him and took a few hard strokes. I was probably halfway through and I think my paddle got stuck in the branches or something and it snapped right in half.”
Glyn-Cuthbert’s cruel bad luck meant he dropped to seventh overall, and cleared the way for McGregor to extend his overall lead to almost 13 minutes, with Jeremy Maher and 2024 Champion Tom Lovemore moving up a position each to second and third after the three finished together at Zoutkloof.
The 48-year-old McGregor won the sprint to secure his third win in three days and it is going to take a disaster of massive proportions – similar to what befell Glyn-Cuthbert – to stop the 11-time World Champion grabbing his record-breaking 15th Berg River title in Velddrif on Saturday.
Maher and Tom Lovemore are likely to fill steps two and three on the podium, but with just 45 seconds separating them, the order is not yet definite and it seems likely there will be some tactical manoeuvrings from the pair on the 57km paddle to Velddrif.
At one stage McGregor looked to be in serious trouble as a lead group formed after the Misverstand Dam portage without the race leader. The paddlers in second to fifth position overall – Glyn-Cuthbert, Maher, Lovemore and Msawenkosi Mtolo – built a lead of well over a minute before McGregor reeled them back in. He rejoined the front group to create what looked destined to be a four-way battle for stage honours – until the Maties student broke his paddle.
In the women’s race Neriyah Dill continues on her relatively uneventful cruise to victory. The Peninsula Canoe Club paddler notched up her third win in three days and has extended her lead over Christy Shrimpton to a massive 69 minutes.
After his disastrous day, Glyn-Cuthbert will caution the heirs apparent on over-confidence, but it seems safe for the engravers to learn the spelling of their McGregor’s and Dill’s names for the winners’ trophies.
SELECTED RESULTS
Men
(under position, name, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Overall)
1 Hank McGregor (4:42:35, 3:36:18, 5:45:59) 14:04:53
2 Jeremy Maher (4:52:12, 3:39:10, 5:46:01) 14:17:23
3 Thomas Lovemore (4:51:20, 3:40:47, 5:46:00) 14:18:08
4 Msawenkosi Mtolo (4:45:27, 3:51:52, 5:53:20) 14:30:40
5 Anders Hart (4:52:52, 3:47:05, 5:53:19) 14:33:17
6 Heinrich Schloms (4:52:53, 3:44:27, 5:56:33) 14:33:54
7 Joshua Glyn-Cuthbert (4:42:36, 3:38:51, 6:21:04) 14:42:32
8 Paul Marais (4:55:57, 3:50:51, 5:56:33) 14:43:21
9 Zamokuhle Meyiwa (4:54:03, 3:54:56, 5:58:31) 14:47:30
10 Sibusiso Zulu (5:02:01, 3:50:08, 5:56:34) 14:48:44
Women
1 Neriyah Dill (5.23.33, 4:05:07, 6:25:03) 15:53;43
2 Christy Shrimpton (5.35.36, 4:27:18, 6:59:08) 17:02:02
3 Natasha Bradford (5.46.03, 4:34:10, 7:05:18) 17:25:32
