10 Out Of 11 Golds for Ruby at SA Champs

Thank you to Kayak Media for this report.

South Africa's Beijing paddling hopeful, Shaun Rubenstein, continued his dominance of domestic sprint canoeing by winning 10 out of the possible 11 races at this past weekend's SA Sprint Championships at Nagle Dam.

After successfully defending his spot for Beijing 1 week ago, Rubenstein remained in Pietermaritzburg to train on the course ahead of the 3 day event. This type of preparation and attention to detail is what characterizes the focused 24 year old, who has been preparing for the Beijing Olympics for the past 7 years.

As South Africa will only be attending 3 International Regattas before the Olympics, Rubenstein used the National Championships to squeeze in as much racing as possible; entering every K1, K2 and K4 event available.

"I tried to focus for every race over the 3 days. Overseas I follow the same pre-race rituals before every race which helps develop a routine that my body gets used to. It is a process that unifies body and mind so that when I line up to race I am mentally and physically prepared for the race ahead"

Rubenstein's immense preparation was put to the test on the 3^rd day of racing. After already winning 8 Gold's over the previous 2 days, he came up against the fastest sprinters in the country for the 200m K1 final, some of whom specialize in the 200m event. Rubenstein blitzed away from the start of the race and outclassed the rest of the field to win by 1.2 seconds at the finish – an incredibly big margin for this type of event.

The National Squad will leave for Europe in May where they will be based for the season leading up to the Olympics.

Senior Men's Results for the Championships:

1000m K1

1^st Rubenstein 3:25.11

2^nd Arthur 3.30.02

3^rd Schoeman 3.31.13

1000m K2

1^st Rubenstein/Burden 3.14.68

2^nd Arthur/Stott 3.16.61

3^rd White/August 3.30

1000m K4

1^st Rubenstein/Arthur/Burden/Stott 2.57.51

500m K1

1^st Rubenstein 1.37.98

2^nd Arthur 1.39.56

3^rd Burden 1.41.75

500m K2

1^st Rubenstein/stott 1.31.06

2^nd Burden/Arthur 1.32.26

3^rd Louw/Louw 1.33.87

500m K4

1^st Ruby/Arthur/burden/stott 1.22.77

200m K1

1^st Rubenstein 36.02

2^nd Louw 37.26

3^rd Humphry 37.28

200m K2

1^st Arthur/Burden 34.26

2^nd Louw/Louw 34.30

3^rd Rubenstein/Stott 34.42

200m K4

1^st Rubenstein/Arthur/Burden/Stott 31.39

3000m K1

1^st Rubenstein 12.23.50

2^nd Schoeman 12.31.85

3^rd Arthur 12.50.75

3000m K2

1^st Rubenstein/Stott 11.16.13

2^nd Schoeman/Stubbs 11.40

3^rd Cele/Ngcobo 12.36.47