skip to main |
skip to sidebar
From Canoeing South Africa Newsletter
Front bunch including Ant Stott and Ruby
Pics copied from Jenna Ward's Facebook album.
The successful South African Marathon Kayaking team returned to a hero’s welcome yesterday, proudly showing off two new World Champions. Gauteng brothers Grant and Brandon van der Walt both won the World title in their respective K1 age groups – a first in world marathon paddling history.
Senior K2 silver medallist Shaun Rubenstein was also celebrated for his outstanding result with partner Ant Stott, who is in England for a week.
The past weekend’s ICF Marathon World Championships in Portugal were widely recognised as the toughest yet raced, with the highest turnout of returning champions ever.
Younger brother Brandon van der Walt got the regatta off to the ideal start for South Africa on Friday morning, when he raced a tactically astute race belying his 17 years to win the gold medal in the opening Junior U18 Men’s event. “It was a huge honour to win the Junior title because my older brother [Grant] had won it before. It was also something for my parents. They have sacrificed so much to help my paddling so it was a good way to say thank you and repay them,” said Brandon.
He crossed the line to rapturous shouting and screaming from the large SA team, who had lined the bank flying flags and blowing vuvuzela’s.
Brandon also predicted his brother’s win later in that afternoon. Grant’s K1 victory in the U23 race backed up the Junior title he won two years ago in Hungary.
Grant vd Walt
This was the first year the International Canoe Federation included the U23 as a stand-alone marathon class, and the event was raced at a very high standard. The powerhouse 19-year-old had to deal with a delayed start to his event, and then recover from a capsize at the end of the first portage. Such was his strength of character, that he quickly put these behind him to control the rest of the race and leave all challengers in his wake on the finish line.
The Senior Men’s K2 event that took place on Sunday afternoon was one of the highlights of the weekend. It featured a host of previous winners and set off at an incredibly fast pace.
“The first 1.5km to the turn was one of the hardest of my life. Every boat was just so fast and the attacks and surges of maximum speed were non-stop all the way to the first turn,” said defending K2 World Champion Ant Stott afterwards. “Our heart rates were through the roof, and we did our best to try and relax slightly before the first portage. It was World Champs though, so you can’t expect to come into the race and not have to go through scary amounts of physical pain,” he added.
Ant Stott and Shaun Rubinstein
The first portage split the field up, with the South Africans finding themselves in a four boat breakaway up front. “All three crews behind us were known for their strong grinding ability, so we had to work hard to make sure that we were not caught. In our group the Czech boat had a very strong pull and they weren’t scared to use it, which helped keep us clear from the rest of the field,” explained previous K1 World Champion Shaun Rubenstein.
The bunch stayed together until the last portage, where the South Africans put in slightly after the Spanish boat. Feeling good, and with 250m to the finish line, Rubenstein and Stott decided to make their move. They pulled up alongside and then overtook them, but the Spaniards came back and edged in front to win by a boatlength on the line.
“Even though it was disappointing not to win gold, the Spanish were the stronger crew on the day and deserved to win,” said a humble Rubenstein after the race.
The sprint ace had raced a titanic K1 race the day before, which was described as one of the most exciting races Marathon has ever seen.
After a bad start, Rubenstein staged an amazing fight back to claw his way onto the front bunch by the fourth lap of seven, but there was not enough in the tank for the tough end sprint and he missed out on a medal by two seconds.
Stott and Rubenstein’s silver means both athletes have now won four Senior World Marathon medals, including gold and bronze – a unique achievement in South African paddling.
Len Jenkins
Hank McGregor and Grant vd Walt
Bridgitte Hartley - I hope to get race details for her race before too long.
Conor knows that Shirley-Anne loves columns so Shirley-Anne this is for you ...
... and close up ...
To do is to be Rene DescartesTo be is to do Jean Paul SartreDoobee doobee doo Frank Sinatra
A picture is worth a thousand words ...
Boy o boy is that true.
I was looking through some pics of Conor's and my UK trip and I was staggered to see the story in some of the pictures of me.
The first picture was taken just over a month after Madelaine told me she wanted to get divorced.
It was taken at the airport on the evening Conor and I flew out of Joburg.
I look a the picture and again I feel incredibly ravaged, like bulldozers had scraped the insides out of me.
I couldn't see past surviving the next few minutes.
The second picture was taken a few weeks ago, roughly two months after the first picture.
I have accepted the divorce and that my marriage is over.
I recognise that I have a new life to live.
Although we haven't gotten through the "process" of getting divorced and there are many challenges to face and deal with before that phase is finished; I am using every spare bit of emotional energy to start laying down the pieces of my new life.
I have a future and I will find ways to thrive in that future.
Maybe good ole Jake didn't have to accept the increase.
Maybe he could have given an example, or showed some sensitivity, or moral leadership ...
Just last week we read about gross mismanagement within ESKOM. A leaked confidential internal memo from Eskom reveals gross mismanagement of funds during the procurement of capital and management of coal supplies, a Democratic Alliance MP said on Thursday."Given the seriousness of the allegations made in this memo, it is clearly now incumbent upon the Minister of Energy to take action against the gross mismanagement of the coal procurement process at Eskom," Cobus Schmidt said.The document, which has reportedly been made available to the DA, is entitled "Forensic Investigation: Claims against Suppliers", and deals with alleged irregularities in the supply of coal to Eskom. Schmidt said the memo demonstrated glaring oversight failures on the part of Eskom."The total claims for damages suffered amounts to more than R100-million, but Eskom has yet to take any action against these suppliers.The memo refers to an investigation carried out by Deloitte and Touche, which revealed that gross irregularities amounting to unlawful, and probably illegal, conduct had taken place on a massive scale over several years."In sum, Eskom appears to be entirely incapable of managing the procurement of coal, leading to enormous losses, which ultimately come at the taxpayers' expense.Then there's the ESKOM 9.7 BILLION Rand loss for the 2009 financial year.Eskom plunged deeper into the red, reporting a full-year loss of 9.7 billion rand ($1.24 billion) for the 2009 financial year to the end of March, hit by higher coal, maintenance and labour costs, against a revised loss of 168 million rand for the previous year.The global economic crisis badly hit the utility's ability to borrow, and Eskom was forced to buy coal on more expansive short-term contracts to boost supply last year when the national grid nearly collapsed, forcing mines to shut.Its loss could further impact the company's rating and its ability to source external funding.Earlier in the year NUM Workers at ESKOM were awarded a 10.55% wage increase nearly 3.5% below the 14% increase they were demanding. They were told that ESKOM had no money to give a higher increase.Luckily they found some money to give good ole Jake (Maroga) a nice increase; 26.7%. Oh yes, and performance shares worth around R680 000. Oh, and expect bonus shares in 2011.When questioned about this, good ole Jake replied that he had not asked for the increase but that it had been decided for him. And by implication thrust upon him. And maybe by implication as well that he had no option but to accept.Imagine if he had actually been doing a good job ...
South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande, recently involved in a furore over his R1,1-million luxury official vehicle, is still a communist and committed to the working class, he said on Friday.
"I have not abandoned my values. I don't think I've abandoned my moral leadership. I am still a communist, I am still committed to the working class," he said.
"I am still committed to taking up the issues relating to the poor and we did explain what happened in relation to that vehicle," Nzimande, who is also Higher Education Minister, said on the sidelines of the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) national general council in Benoni.
The government said recently that it had appointed a task team to see how officials could cut unnecessary spending.
"Government at the moment is undertaking a process through Cabinet of looking at a whole range of austerity measures that must be taken and once those are done they must be announced so that they are able to guide all government institutions and government departments," Nzimande said.
"Its very necessary, I support that to the hilt," he added, just minutes before leaving for the airport in his silver-grey BMW 750i.
Reported in The Mail & Guardian, September 11 2009
A few weeks ago Sony, who are one of the 2010 Soccer World Cup title sponsors brought the actual World Cup trophy out to South Africa for a publicity junket.
I heard about it on radio and took my son Conor and his friend Mathew to get our photos taken with the trophy.
This was no replica but is the actual trophy that will be awarded to and kept by the winning team next year.
We expected mega crowds and an interminably long queue to get to be photographed with the trophy.
We were both relieved and disappointed to find that although there was a crowd it was nowhere near as large as we expected. Although there was a great buzz in South Africa when the tournament was awarded this doesn't seem to have been sustained.
We waited in the buzzing queue for about 30 minutes before it was our turn. By the time we got to the trophy we had been primed by constant reminders that no-one was to touch the trophy.
As you can see we got pics of just the two boys with the trophy and then the three of us together.
Conor is in the striped top and Mathew in the Bafana Bafana top. He even got interviewed by a local TV channel for wearing his Bafana Bafana top.
A once in a lifetime experience!
Before you do anything, think. If you do something to try and impress someone, to be loved, accepted or even to get someone's attention, stop and think. So many people are busy trying to create an image, they die in the process.
Salma Hayek
Shortly after returning from SA Champs at Nagel Dam my wife told me she wanted to get divorced. Since then my life has been in turmoil and my heart breaking.
Slowly, but surely, I am putting the shattered pieces of my life back together and thinking about how to make the best of the rest of my life.
On September 11, 2001, the world fractured. It's beyond my skill as a writer to capture that day, and the days that would follow — the planes, like specters, vanishing into steel and glass; the slow-motion cascade of the towers crumbling into themselves; the ash-covered figures wandering the streets; the anguish and the fear. Nor do I pretend to understand the stark nihilism that drove the terrorists that day and that drives their brethren still. My powers of empathy, my ability to reach into another's heart, cannot penetrate the blank stares of those who would murder innocents with abstract, serene satisfaction. Barack Obama
"Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet."
Robin Williams
Or was it the Greek term for ripping your heart out through your children?
Anonymous
"Marriage is wonderful when it lasts forever, and I envy the old couples in When Harry Met Sally who reminisce tearfully about the day they met 50 years before. I no longer believe, however, that a marriage is a failure if it doesn't last forever. It may be a tragedy, but it is not necessarily a failure. And when a marriage does last forever with love alive, it is a miracle."
Peggy O'Mara
