Underberg | South Africa - An action packed weekend on the mighty Umzimkulu River for the 20th edition of the N3TC Drak Challenge kicked off the first event in the ICF Classic Series. Under 23 Canoe Marathon World Champion Grant van der Walt earned his first senior singles river marathon title when he narrowly outsprinted Len Jenkins on Sunday's final stage and in so doing smashed the men's overall, and second stage records by 11sec and 20mins respectively.

"I'm just super stoked!" said an elated van der Walt. "It was an awesome couple of days of racing and the fact that I have won is amazing!"

Having started side by side the lead pair were soon joined by Brandon van der Walt (Team Jeep) and Donavan Wewege and the four boat group watched each other closely until the compulsory portage at Mineshaft Weir saw things shaken up quite abruptly.

Jenkins made his move shortly before this compulsory portage and had soon opened up a significant lead shortly after the put in.

Van der Walt finally managed to catch Len with about a kilometer to go and then edged ahead in the final rapid and was able to finish a couple lengths ahead of Len and I'm just super stoked to have won!" he added. The younger of the two van der Walt brothers came home to claim the final step on the podium.

Czech Republic marathon paddler Jakub Adam also had an impressive second day's performance moving up from twentieth to fourteenth overall.

The women's race was once again dominated by Team Best 4 Kayak Centre team mates Abby Adie and Robyn Kime with Adie coming out trumps for the third time in fours years and in the process smashed the women's second stage and overall records by seventeen and thirty seven minutes respectively and also claimed a hugely impressive top twenty finish overall.

Kime erased Adie's overnight lead of thirty three seconds by halfway through the 38km second stage and the pair continued side by side until shortly before Heaven and Hell Rapid which saw Kime have a contest ending swim and handed Adie the title.

After Michelle Burn and Jen Theron spent much of the second stage together both paddlers swam at the same rapid however Theron was able to gather herself and cross the line in third position whilst Burn was forced to withdraw from the race.

More information can be found at www.drak.co.za.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS – N3TC DRAK CHALLENGE

Overall

1. Grant van der Walt (U23) 2.00:26 3.15:48
2. Len Jenkins 2.00:37 3.16:00
3. Brandon van der Walt (U23) 2.02:29 3.18:14
4. Donavan Wewege (U23) 2.04:14 3.20:10
5. Jacques Theron 2.04:49 3.21:29
6. Lance Kime (U23) 2.03.31 3.22:22
7. Ant Stott 2.03.26 3.22:43
8. Carl Folscher 2.04.41 3.22:46
9. Shaun Griffin 2.05:09 3.23:13
10. Gavin Shuter (U23) 2.03:37 3.24:05
11. Murray Starr (U23) 2.05:14 3.24:07
12. Oliver Burn 2.07:05 3.25:59
13. James Speed (U23) 2.06:41 3.28:33
14. Owen Gandar (U23) 2.08:51 3.29:11
15. Jakub Adam (CZE) 2.08:25 3.30:20
16. David Chaplin 2.11:36 3.31:00
17. Gavin Tarr 2.11:07 3.32:03
18. Andrew Neal 2.10:06 3.32.04
19. Abby Adie (Women) 2.09:00 3.32:07
20. Murray Haw (U23) 2.12:18 3.33:12

Women

1. Abby Adie (U23) 2.09:00 3.32:07
2. Robyn Kime (U23) 2.10:45 3.34
3. Jen Theron 2.17:18 3.44:26
4. Brittany Petersen (U23) 2.25:14 3.58:48
5. Jenna Ward (U23) 2.24:31 4.02:30