18 February 2023
Maritzburg College old boy Andy Birkett recorded a remarkable 10th successive victory in the Dusi Canoe Marathon on Saturday, clinching the title at Durban’s Blue Lagoon after taking the stage honours on all three days of the famous race.
Since winning his first title as a schoolboy in 2010 – a K2 victory with College teacher Jason Graham – Birkett has powered his way to 13 wins. It is a truly astounding record, especially when one considers the unpredictability of the river and terrain that competitors need to traverse.
That an equipment issue has prevented Birkett winning only once since his first victory is incredible; he placed fourth after taking a swim on day two and suffering a damaged rudder in 2013.
Birkett’s victory, his sixth K1 title, was achieved in 7:15:38 in full river conditions. It was well within his record time for the event of 7:55:35, which is mostly explained by the decision of the organisers to start the 2023 race at the Bishopstowe Country Club after calls by environmental groups for paddlers to avoid the Msundusi River through Pietermaritzburg. In addition, the route of the river has changed somewhat as a result of the floods of April 2021.
Msawenkosi Mtolo placed second in 7:21:43, with another College old boy, David Evans, securing third place with a time of 7:24:26, which also won him the under-23 category. Behind him in fourth, just over eight minutes later, Scott Little, also an Old Collegian, took fourth. Banetse Nkhoesa completed the top five.
Winner’s comments
The final day of racing was highlighted by an elevated water level after overnight rain. “Today felt like a new river for all of us,” Birkett said after securing victory. “We were just paddling scared, trying to avoid the big rapids.
“I didn’t recognise many of the rapids and was not taking the fastest line and skirting everything on the sides. You could feel the power of the water,” he added.
Birkett also touched on the unpredictability of event, saying: “The race is not the same from one year to the next, and that’s what makes Dusi special, and you have to adapt to the variables.”
College canoeing coach stars
Success for College was not restricted to the men’s race. The school’s canoeing coach, Bridgitte Hartley placed second in the women’s event.
Christie McKenzie was a convincing winner for the third time in succession in a time of 8:19:37. Her time was well within Robyn Kime’s record of 9:17:16, set in 2013. Hartley finished in 8:47:27, with Jordan Peek, a former K2 champion. taking third in 8:56:48.
It was a K1 year – the Dusi alternates between singles and doubles – but among those who did tackle the event in K2 craft, current College pupil, Simon Norton, placed second in the under-23 category with his partner, Tom Ross.
The greatest ever?
Now, back to Andy Birkett. Some may consider it heresy, but his case as the greatest to ever compete in the Dusi Canoe Marathon considers to gather strength. The record for most victories belongs to Graeme Pope-Ellis, an Alexander High School old boy, known as “The Dusi King”, who won the race 15 times, in three different decades, between 1972 and 1990.
Only three times between his first and last win did Pope-Ellis fail to stand atop the podium. Birkett, as was pointed out earlier, has won 13 times in 14 years, and given that he finished school in 2010, providing he stays healthy, motivated, and fortune shines on him, he should have more victories to come.
Differences in the greats’ records
Where there is a noticeable different between the records of the two is the number of K1 and K2 wins, and the number of partners they had in those K2 victories.
Pope-Ellis won 12 times in a K2. The alternating years of K1 and K2 competition was introduced in 1986 only. Before that, he claimed two K1 wins and nine K2 titles. He was also part of three very successful combinations: he and Eric Clarke won three times, Pope-Ellis and Peter Peacock captured five titles, and Pope-Ellis and Tim Cornish picked up four wins.
Birkett’s 13 wins include six K1 victories and seven K2 titles. However, his K2 wins have, incredibly, been achieved with six partners. No disrespect intended to any of them, and their talent and ability is not in dispute, but the common factor in those wins is Andy Birkett. It is that fact that, arguably, makes him the greatest to ever do it.
Pope-Ellis and Birkett competed in different eras, however, and it is almost always a somewhat unfair exercise to compare different eras. Also, the last person likely to want to see this comparison made is Andy Birkett himself.
Neither answer would be wrong
Always humble, he has in the past always deflected the conversation in another direction when asked questions about whether or not he is aiming to match the 15 victories that Pope-Ellis achieved. One could motivate for either Birkett or Pope-Ellis as the greatest ever, and neither answer would be wrong.
However, it’s almost as if Birkett’s greatness has crept up on followers of the Dusi and marathon paddling, in general. Strangely, too, he hasn’t been accorded a catchy nickname, like Pope-Ellis’ “The Dusi King”, and seven-time winner Martin Dreyer’s “The Dusi Duke” (and mention should be made that Dreyer stopped competing for the title in his prime to focus on unleashing the dormant paddling talent in the Valley of a Thousand Hills).
It feels as if Birkett should have a special Dusi moniker. Again, though, he would likely be the first to say no to that idea.
College’s great canoeing successes
Birkett, who is also a multiple world marathon champion in both singles and doubles, might be quiet about his successes, but for Maritzburg College his win is yet another great feather in the cap of their canoeing programme.
Quick mention, though, of DHS old boy, Hank McGregor, who through his legendary record of successes showed Birkett what it took to win at the Marathon World Championships level. Fittingly, in 2022, the Birkett/McGregor combo won the K2 title at the World Champs.
Before Dusi K1 and K2 competition was separated, Andre Hawarden was a true ironman, taking on the K2 teams and their undoubted advantages in his K1, in which he regularly finished first among the singles competitors, while the red, black and white’s Kevin White won three times in succession from 1993 to 1995. Ant Stott was a four-time winner, twice in a K1 and twice in a K2, while Len Jenkins destroyed the race record in 2001.
Mention, too, should be made of Cam Schoeman, who teamed with Stott to win the K2 marathon World Championships in 2008.
And to round this article off, going back to 2021, College old boy, Lyle Wheeler, established an extraordinary record of his own when he became the first person in the history of the Dusi Canoe Marathon to paddle it 50 times.
Hats off to Andy Birkett and hats off to Maritzburg College on a remarkable canoeing record. It’s one that appears to be far from stagnant.
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