Drak Challenge

“What makes the N3TC Drak Challenge special is that it is so much more than a race,” says Colin Simpkins. “The community embraces everything about the event. There is so much for the families to do on the weekend.” Should Simpkins defy the odds and finish the race he will go top of the table of Super Trouts with 27 Drak medals.

Photo: Anthony Grote/
Gameplan Media

Drak Challenge set to welcome new Super Trouts royalty

Three paddlers stand poised to join the Super Trout club at the Drak Challenge canoe marathon on 28 and 29 January.

Drak Challenge

“What makes the N3TC Drak Challenge special is that it is so much more than a race,” says Colin Simpkins. “The community embraces everything about the event. There is so much for the families to do on the weekend.” Should Simpkins defy the odds and finish the race he will go top of the table of Super Trouts with 27 Drak medals.

Photo: Anthony Grote/
Gameplan Media

Three paddlers stand poised to join the Super Trout club at the Drak Challenge canoe marathon on 28 and 29 January as the popular two-day race attracts another big field excited by the full uMzimkhulu River.

Gary Atkinson, Jeremy Ferrow and Shane Millward have all completed nineteen Draks and should they finish the 2023 edition of the 72km race they will be welcomed into the sixteen-strong group of paddlers with twenty or more Drak finishes to their credit.

Super Trouts candidates step forward at Drak Challenge

There is also set to a shake-up at the top of the list as Colin Simpkins sets off on his 27th Drak and will top the list of Drak Trouts, a list that was for much of the races 28-year history was topped by Pietermaritzburg paddling icon Owen Hemmingway.

ALSO READ: Andy Birkett the gold standard at the Drak Challenge

Last year Simpkins edged one clear of Hemmingway to share the list of most Drak finishes with Dave Macleod, and says the Underberg race is a must-do on his annual paddling calendar.

“The Drak sums up what paddling is to me,” says Simpkins. “It is full of great, exciting rapids, raced on a clean, untamed river and in the beautiful scenery of the foothills of the Drakensberg,” said Simpkins.

“The race always attracts the best paddlers in the country and to do well at the Drak you have to be on top of your game,” he added. “What is notable though is that, while it is so competitive, the mood and atmosphere at the race is so relaxed.

“But what makes it special is that it is so much more than a race,” he went on to say. “The community embraces everything about the event. There is so much for the families to do on the weekend.”

Drak Challenge
Paddlers have responded enthusiastically to the opening of entries for the N3TC Drak Challenge in partnership with FNB in Underberg on 28 and 29 January 2023. Photo: Anthony Grote/ Gameplan Media

ALSO READ: Paddling star Hamish Lovemore bolsters field

Golf day glory

Simpkins ring-fences Saturday afternoon for the festive social nine hole golf tournament at the Underberg Country Club, and has over the years, been able to lift the massive gaudy Spanish trophy above his head for winning the golf day.

Macleod, who has left the door has been left open for Simpkins to top the Drak Trout list by emigrating last year, says he wishes Simpkins well, but added that there was no guarantee Simpkins would overtake him.

ALSO READ: Christie Mackenzie is gunning for the title

“For years the Trout list has been sorted alphabetically by surname so I have technically been just above him. This year is his chance.

“I started every year in the same batch as Colin so I have seen how he paddles,” Macleod added. “It’s a bit like watching a ping-pong ball in a washing machine the way he bashes all the rocks. So who knows…” he speculated.

“Dave has, over the years become the Phil Liggett of paddling. His voice has become synonymous with major races around the country,” Simpkins weighed in.

A light rib

“Since the inception of the Drak, I have come to admire Dave for his contribution to the sport. Looking at his results, I was always under the impression that he was unselfishly acting as a sweep,” Simpkins joked.

“It was only brought to my attention recently that he has actually been “racing” all the time. After 26 hits at it, one would have thought that there would be a modicum of improvement in his performance, but alas…

“He has also taken it upon himself to make videos of the various rapids, which he has been complicit it giving a variety of very nondescript names, dolling out advice on which lines to take. By the number of non finishers each year, it appears that some of the more gullible have actually taken these seriously.

“Off the river, he is no legend either,” he added.

“Year after year, when the announcer calls his name at the first tee of the Drak golf day, there is a deafening silence, despite flurries of correspondence expounding his virtues on the links, running up to the event.

“It’s probably not a bad thing that he is stuck in the frozen wastelands of the maple leaf, where he can concentrate on his actual talent behind the keyboard,” said Simpkins.

ALSO READ: Rising paddling star Dave Evans targets podium at Drak Challenge

N3TC Drak Challenge Super Trouts

26 – Dave Macleod, Colin Simpkins.

25 – Owen Hemingway.

24 – Kirsten Oliver.

23 – Glenn Hilliar, Greg Hitchins, Gavin Tarr.

22 – Lawrence Blackbeard, Gary Waud.

21 – Bart Fokkens, Nigel Stevens, Anthony Van Tonder, Bruce Wenke.

20 – Kevin Middleton, Dean Oellermann, Hugh Raw.

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