Tag: canoe

With canoe-cracking rocks, steaming rapids, broiling heat and arduous terrain, the Dusi Canoe Marathon makes for a race that truly tests mental and physical strength. The 62-year-old competition still attracts serious endurance athletes and old warriors.

Eight days, 800 kilometres and some seriously steep ravines – this is the Absa Cape Epic, one of the most extreme things a person can do with a bicycle. The hors catégorie event is the most televised mountain bike stage race in the world. Each year a new route is chosen, as difficult and as beautiful as the last.

In one of the most exciting men's races at the Berg River Canoe Marathon in years, event novice Andy Birkett managed to hold off Western Cape ace Graeme Solomon to claim his maiden Berg title, while Abby Adie stormed to a convincing win in the ladies' race.

The Berg River Marathon is probably the most gruelling way to spend four days in mid-winter. The canoe race sets off from Paarl and ends 240 kilometres away in Velddrif, in the Western Cape. Throw in howling wind, driving rain and lots of portage, and you've got a recipe for extreme sport.

While most people are tucked up warmly indoors during winter, a group of dedicated extreme athletes is out riding the Freedom Challenge. The mountain bike race takes riders more than 2 000 kilometres across some of South Africa's harshest but most beautiful scenery.

Some of the world's most extreme races are held in South Africa, where elite athletes – and ordinary people – pit themselves against the unforgiving elements and huge distances. Perhaps the most well-known is the Comrades Marathon, a gruelling 90km run between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

It was another wild ride down The Dusi this year, with winners Andy Birkett and Sbonelo Zondi delighted with their performance. It was Birkett's 10th marathon, earning him his green number. The rapids, the heat, the uphill portages and the unpredictable water levels combine to make the Dusi Canoe Marathon one of the toughest endurance races in the country.

Four stand-up paddleboarders have been granted permission to enter the 2014 Dusi Canoe Marathon, marking a first in the 63-year history of the 120km paddling race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

The Soweto Canoe and Recreation Club is aiming to make waves at this year's Dusi Canoe Marathon, with a club record 20 members taking part in the event, including former podium finisher Loveday Zondi.

With one of South Africa's most famous endurance sport events, the Dusi Canoe Marathon, fast approaching, paddlers from the country's canoeing development programmes served notice of their intent by winning two Dusi seeding events on the weekend.