With a week to go until the 71st edition of the MyLife Dusi Canoe Marathon, the unheralded crew of Sbonelo Khwela and Nqobile Makhanya announced themselves as podium threats last weekend.
The Euro Steel pair cruised their way to victory in the Parklane Spar Campbellโs Farm to Dusi Bridge race, the final hit-out before the Dusi next week, and with the win they put themselves firmly in the cross-hairs of the other podium hopefuls.
Despite a quiet build-up to this yearโs edition of the race, former champion Khwela didnโt envisage it being that way as the pair ironed out the creases in their partnership before claiming overall honours on Sunday.
โWe have definitely been trying to push every race and have been working hard to win but it just didnโt happen until last weekend,โ Khwela said.
โWe couldnโt get it right and throughout the season we have changed our plans and now we have settled on Nqobile driving the boat and me giving the power in the back.
โIt is feeling good and we are happy with how things went on Sunday.โ
Sundayโs race was the second of a busy weekend of racing with the Kindo Covers Dash โn Crash taking place on Saturday. This meant that there were a few notable absentees from the Campbellโs to Dusi Bridge field, something that Khwela considers when looking back at the win.
โYour big Dusi contenders like Thulani (Mbanjwa) and Msawenkosi (Mtolo) as well as Andy (Birkett) and Dave (Evans) didnโt race on Sunday so I am not going to look too deeply into the result.
โIt was encouraging that we didnโt push ourselves and the other crews couldnโt keep up so we know that we are going in the right direction.
โWe are feeling relaxed in the boat which is a good thing for us,โ Khwela added.
At the Inanda Dam to Durban race Khwela and Makhanya finished in second place behind Birkett and Evans among a strong field of Dusi contenders. The race provided Khwela and Makhanya with a lot of confidence on a number of fronts.
โWe were really happy to finish the race on Andyโs wave which shows we are hitting good form but without Burma Road now we were glad that our paddling was strong.
โWeโve been quiet for a long time and now to be back at the front is good and itโs exciting but itโs also been good because the other crews might not know where to attack us during the race.
โOur running is strong and weโve worked hard on that but weโve also worked a lot on our paddling which is now starting to show.
โItโs going to be a really exciting race and weโre happy with how we are going with a week to go until the Dusi,โ an upbeat Khwela mentioned.