2015 ICF World Championships Slalom
 
1
2
3
K1M
CZ J. PRSKAVEC
PL M. POLACZYK
US M. SMOLEN
K1W
CZ K. KUDEJOVA
DE R. FUNK
DE M. PFEIFER
C1M
GB D. FLORENCE
SI B. SAVSEK
GB R. WESTLEY
C1W
AU J. FOX
CZ K. HOSKOVA
ES N. VILARRUBLA
C2
DE ANTON/BENZIEN
FR PICCO/BISO
FR KLAUSS/PECHE

Marathon

Natal Canoe Club produces its best results yet at the 2016 Dusi

canoe kayak paddlesport development marathon dusi natal club sportscene icf kwazulu

Writer: Brad Morgan - The past weekend’s FNB Dusi Canoe Marathon was a huge success for Pietermaritzburg's Natal Canoe Club (NCC). Not only did NCC’s Andy Birkett stand on top of the men’s podium and Abby Adie win the women’s race, but the NCC Development Team produced its best results yet.

Thanks to the backing of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport and Recreation, a total of 14 NCC Development paddlers started the race and all 14 finished. Two crews made it into the top 30, while the club’s under-18 paddlers captured the Junior Team title.

Mfaniseni Nyawose, nicknamed “Pablo” by six-time Dusi champ Birkett after he journeyed to Spain’s Sella Descent in 2014 with other top NCC paddlers, led the way for the Development Team in the Dusi, joining forces with Richard Cele to finish a very commendable 19th overall. Not too far behind them, Wandile Luthuli partnered Don Wewege to a 28th place finish.

Letho Luthuli and Mongezi Thusi, meanwhile, placed fourth in the under-18 category and 52nd overall. The pair, who are both products of the NCC Development Academy were awarded the junior development prize.

Together with Siyabonga Hlope and Kumbulani Molefe, they captured the Junior Team prize ahead of Michaelhouse. Hlope and Molefe, who had a legitimate shot at a podium place in the age group, had their front deck wrecked on the first day of the race, but kept on going and showed their ability on the final day when they recorded the fastest time in B Batch, in the group that started just before the leaders.

Interestingly, when the NCC Development Programme began, it was never with the aim of producing star paddlers. Rather it was about taking the sport to as wide a base as possible. "The NCC Development Programme was never really intended to be a high performance programme," NCC General Manager Brett Austen Smith admitted in an interview this week.

"It was always about a holistic approach and the aim was to give the guys the best opportunities of paddling and doing well, and providing them with all the right equipment, the right nutrition and the right coaching and gym equipment and gym coaching. If they achieved phenomenal results, well and good.”

The holistic approach has included the NCC Development Programme annually hosting the Umpetha Challenge, a key FNB Dusi qualifier, which has helped develop other talents needed for the successful administration of canoeing.

Thuthu Manyathi, a Dusi Rat, who oversees the organisation of the Umpetha Challenge, also serves on the Dusi Committee. Austen Smith praised the role he has played in the success of the programme: "Thuthu really plays a vital role within Natal Canoe Club and the Dusi Committee in liaising with development paddlers and giving us feedback. He is at the coal face as far as the development paddlers are concerned. He gives us valuable feedback on how to best approach them and how best to manage them."

Assanda Bengu has, meanwhile, found a job looking after the NCC facilities. "Very, very important," Austen Smith said in describing the work Beng has done.

Detailing some of the Development Programme’s successes, Austen Smith said: "We have got two guys given bursaries to go to schools. Another got a bursary to go to university and went to Morocco to be trained as an International Canoe Federation coach. Two guys were given opportunities to go to Spain to paddle the Sella Descent. Two more of them have been given the opportunity to become part of the Macsteel Maestros Programme and at least six of the current team of 18 have been elevated from the ranks of the Development Academy into the ranks of the NCC Development Team, where they will be given opportunities to race provincially, nationally and, hopefully, internationally."

NCC has also used the Development Programme to promote Canadian canoeing, an Olympic discipline, in which paddlers kneel on one knee and paddle to one side. The aim is to help those who taken on the discipline to make it through all the levels of competition and into the Olympics. Girls, especially, have embraced the challenge.

"It would be impossible without them. There would be no programme. There would be no Academy. There would be no Development team. There would be no Umpetha Challenge. And there certainly wouldn't be a group of 14 passionate individuals flying the Department of Sport and Recreation's flag so strongly at the Dusi if it wasn't for them."

However, in line with the all-around focus of the NCC Development Programme, the success didn’t happen on the water alone. Thuthu Manyathi, a Dusi Rat, served on the Dusi Committee, managing the interface between the Committee and all development paddlers, while Assanda Bengu was responsible for the NCC grounds that painted such a pretty picture for the start of this year's event.    

"The NCC Development Programme was never really intended to be a high performance programme. It was always about a holistic approach and the aim was to give the guys the best opportunities of paddling and doing well, and providing them with all the right equipment and all the right nutrition and all the right coaching and gym equipment and coaching. If they achieved phenomenal results, well and good,” NCC General Manager Brett Austen Smith said in an interview with The Witness yesterday.

“The main aim was to give them opportunities to choose the right people, and to give them opportunities to use canoeing to further their personal lives and careers, and to broaden their horizons."

Austen Smith then detailed how canoeing had provided opportunities for participants in the NCC Development Programme: "We have got two guys given bursaries to go to schools. Another got a bursary to go to university and went to Morocco to be trained as an International Canoe Federation coach. Two guys were given opportunities to go to Spain to paddle the Sella Descent. Two more of them have been given the opportunity to become part of the Macsteel Maestros Programme and at least six of the current team of 18 have been elevated from the ranks of the Development Academy into the ranks of the NCC Development Team, where they will be given opportunities to race provincially, nationally and, hopefully, internationally."

NCC has also used the Development Programme to promote Canadian canoeing, an Olympic discipline, in which paddlers kneel on one knee and paddle to one side. The aim is to help those who taken on the discipline to make it through all the levels of competition and into the Olympics. Girls, especially, have embraced the challenge.

"I am very, very proud of them. I am very excited about what they achieved. I had hoped that Siyabonga Hlope and Kumbulani Molefe would get onto the podium, and they were certainly in line for that. Unfortunately, this is the Dusi and somebody crashed through their front deck on day one and effectively ruled them out of podium contention. I am very proud of the way they kept at it and fought back on days two and three. Together with Lethokuhle Luthuli and Mongezi Thusi won the Junior Team Prize."

"Thuthu really plays a vital role within Natal Canoe Club and the Dusi Committee in liaising with development paddlers and giving us feedback. He is at the coal face as far as the development paddlers are concerned. He gives us valuable feedback on how to best approach them and how best to manage them."

"Assanda has been very, very important in being employed by Natal Canoe Club and making sure that the venue is up to scratch - the maintenance of the venue, the grass and all the little daily odds and ends jobs, preparing for Dices and things like that. That's his role and he is very critical in that."

"He's a vibrant, bubbly character and does everything he does with a smile on his face."

"A big element of it, especially with the young girls, who have the opportunity nowadays to go to the Olympics in the Canadian canoeing discipline. We've got three girls that are doing Canadian paddling, as well as Mongiseni Dlamini. He's in the senior men's division. We've got four Canadian paddlers that we are really hoping are going to do well at the forthcoming Sprint Championships - KZN, South African, and, hopefully, African Sprint Champs."

NCC has also used the Development Programme to promote Canadian canoeing, an Olympic discipline, in which paddlers kneel on one knee and paddle to one side. The aim is to help those who taken on the discipline to make it through all the levels of competition and into the Olympics.

"The girls have all come through the Academy. As I say, we've got six people who have been given an opportunity via the Academy to become part of the Development Team and who will hopefully compete on the national scene very shortly."

"It would be impossible without them. There would be no programme. There would be no Academy. There would be no Development team. There would be no Umpetha Challenge. And there certainly wouldn't be a group of 14 passionate individuals flying the Department of Sport and Recreation's flag so strongly at the Dusi if it wasn't for them."

With the backing of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport and Recreation, NCC‘s broad-based development programme has introduced the sport of canoeing to thousands of children. The most talented paddlers from the development ranks

Thanks to the backing of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport and Recreation, a total of 14 NCC Development paddlers started the race and all 14 finished. Two crews made it into the top 30, while the club’s under-18 paddlers captured the Junior Team title.

Mfaniseni Nyawose, nicknamed “Pablo” by six-time Dusi champ Birkett after he journeyed to Spain’s Sella Descent in 2014 with other top NCC paddlers, led the way for the Development Team in the Dusi, joining forces with Richard Cele to finish a very commendable 19th overall. Not too far behind them, Wandile Luthuli partnered Don Wewege to a 28th place finish.

Letho Luthuli and Mongezi Thusi, meanwhile, placed fourth in the under-18 category and 52nd overall. The pair, who are both products of the NCC Development Academy were awarded the junior development prize.

Together with Siyabonga Hlope and Kumbulani Molefe, they captured the Junior Team prize ahead of Michaelhouse. Hlope and Molefe, who had a legitimate shot at a podium place in the age group, had their front deck wrecked on the first day of the race, but kept on going and showed their ability on the final day when they recorded the fastest time in B Batch, in the group that started just before the leaders.

Interestingly, when the NCC Development Programme began, it was never with the aim of producing star paddlers. Rather it was about taking the sport to as wide a base as possible. "The NCC Development Programme was never really intended to be a high performance programme," NCC General Manager Brett Austen Smith admitted in an interview this week.

"It was always about a holistic approach and the aim was to give the guys the best opportunities of paddling and doing well, and providing them with all the right equipment, the right nutrition and the right coaching and gym equipment and gym coaching. If they achieved phenomenal results, well and good.”

The holistic approach has included the NCC Development Programme annually hosting the Umpetha Challenge, a key FNB Dusi qualifier, which has helped develop other talents needed for the successful administration of canoeing.

Thuthu Manyathi, a Dusi Rat, who oversees the organisation of the Umpetha Challenge, also serves on the Dusi Committee. Austen Smith praised the role he has played in the success of the programme: "Thuthu really plays a vital role within Natal Canoe Club and the Dusi Committee in liaising with development paddlers and giving us feedback. He is at the coal face as far as the development paddlers are concerned. He gives us valuable feedback on how to best approach them and how best to manage them."

Assanda Bengu has, meanwhile, found a job looking after the NCC facilities. "Very, very important," Austen Smith said in describing the work Beng has done.

Detailing some of the Development Programme’s successes, Austen Smith said: "We have got two guys given bursaries to go to schools. Another got a bursary to go to university and went to Morocco to be trained as an International Canoe Federation coach. Two guys were given opportunities to go to Spain to paddle the Sella Descent. Two more of them have been given the opportunity to become part of the Macsteel Maestros Programme and at least six of the current team of 18 have been elevated from the ranks of the Development Academy into the ranks of the NCC Development Team, where they will be given opportunities to race provincially, nationally and, hopefully, internationally."

NCC has also used the Development Programme to promote Canadian canoeing, an Olympic discipline, in which paddlers kneel on one knee and paddle to one side. The aim is to help those who taken on the discipline to make it through all the levels of competition and into the Olympics. Girls, especially, have embraced the challenge.

"It would be impossible without them. There would be no programme. There would be no Academy. There would be no Development team. There would be no Umpetha Challenge. And there certainly wouldn't be a group of 14 passionate individuals flying the Department of Sport and Recreation's flag so strongly at the Dusi if it wasn't for them."

However, in line with the all-around focus of the NCC Development Programme, the success didn’t happen on the water alone. Thuthu Manyathi, a Dusi Rat, served on the Dusi Committee, managing the interface between the Committee and all development paddlers, while Assanda Bengu was responsible for the NCC grounds that painted such a pretty picture for the start of this year's event.    

"The NCC Development Programme was never really intended to be a high performance programme. It was always about a holistic approach and the aim was to give the guys the best opportunities of paddling and doing well, and providing them with all the right equipment and all the right nutrition and all the right coaching and gym equipment and coaching. If they achieved phenomenal results, well and good,” NCC General Manager Brett Austen Smith said in an interview with The Witness yesterday.

“The main aim was to give them opportunities to choose the right people, and to give them opportunities to use canoeing to further their personal lives and careers, and to broaden their horizons."

Austen Smith then detailed how canoeing had provided opportunities for participants in the NCC Development Programme: "We have got two guys given bursaries to go to schools. Another got a bursary to go to university and went to Morocco to be trained as an International Canoe Federation coach. Two guys were given opportunities to go to Spain to paddle the Sella Descent. Two more of them have been given the opportunity to become part of the Macsteel Maestros Programme and at least six of the current team of 18 have been elevated from the ranks of the Development Academy into the ranks of the NCC Development Team, where they will be given opportunities to race provincially, nationally and, hopefully, internationally."

NCC has also used the Development Programme to promote Canadian canoeing, an Olympic discipline, in which paddlers kneel on one knee and paddle to one side. The aim is to help those who taken on the discipline to make it through all the levels of competition and into the Olympics. Girls, especially, have embraced the challenge.

"I am very, very proud of them. I am very excited about what they achieved. I had hoped that Siyabonga Hlope and Kumbulani Molefe would get onto the podium, and they were certainly in line for that. Unfortunately, this is the Dusi and somebody crashed through their front deck on day one and effectively ruled them out of podium contention. I am very proud of the way they kept at it and fought back on days two and three. Together with Lethokuhle Luthuli and Mongezi Thusi won the Junior Team Prize."

"Thuthu really plays a vital role within Natal Canoe Club and the Dusi Committee in liaising with development paddlers and giving us feedback. He is at the coal face as far as the development paddlers are concerned. He gives us valuable feedback on how to best approach them and how best to manage them."

"Assanda has been very, very important in being employed by Natal Canoe Club and making sure that the venue is up to scratch - the maintenance of the venue, the grass and all the little daily odds and ends jobs, preparing for Dices and things like that. That's his role and he is very critical in that."

"He's a vibrant, bubbly character and does everything he does with a smile on his face."

"A big element of it, especially with the young girls, who have the opportunity nowadays to go to the Olympics in the Canadian canoeing discipline. We've got three girls that are doing Canadian paddling, as well as Mongiseni Dlamini. He's in the senior men's division. We've got four Canadian paddlers that we are really hoping are going to do well at the forthcoming Sprint Championships - KZN, South African, and, hopefully, African Sprint Champs."

NCC has also used the Development Programme to promote Canadian canoeing, an Olympic discipline, in which paddlers kneel on one knee and paddle to one side. The aim is to help those who taken on the discipline to make it through all the levels of competition and into the Olympics.

"The girls have all come through the Academy. As I say, we've got six people who have been given an opportunity via the Academy to become part of the Development Team and who will hopefully compete on the national scene very shortly."

"It would be impossible without them. There would be no programme. There would be no Academy. There would be no Development team. There would be no Umpetha Challenge. And there certainly wouldn't be a group of 14 passionate individuals flying the Department of Sport and Recreation's flag so strongly at the Dusi if it wasn't for them."

With the backing of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Sport and Recreation, NCC‘s broad-based development programme has introduced the sport of canoeing to thousands of children. The most talented paddlers from the development ranks.