Gallery
KNYSNA NEWS - One of many events making a welcome return to the Knysna Oyster Festival this year was the Harbour2Heads Lagoon Challenge, a canoe race that took paddlers on 11km- and 22km-journeys around the Knysna Estuary on Sunday 3 July.
The 22km was achieved by completing the 11km course twice. The race, which last took place pre-Covid in 2019, was organised by the Knysna Canoe Club.
The main race saw 44 boats, covering both K1 and K2 categories, hit the water at 10:00. K1 is a single canoeist in a boat and K2 is a team of two canoeists in a boat.
PHOTO GALLERY: Harour2Heads a welcome at Knysna Oyster Festival
The main race was preceded by a guppy race for juniors at 09:00. Their 2km route took them from the Knysna Yacht Club and in among the nearby moorings before heading into the harbour at the Knysna Waterfront, where they made their way along the channel around the Knysna Quays and finished back at the Knysna Yacht Club.
Keegan Godfrey was the winner of the guppy race, followed by Ben van Staden in second and Celyn Godfrey in third, who was also the first girl over the line.
The Harbour2Heads race gifted canoeists a stunning array of views.
In the feature race, canoeists rowed from the Knysna Yacht Club through the no wake zone and into the open water in the estuary.
They made their way to Featherbed Bay where they turned around and headed back towards Thesens Island.
There they paddled around the canals that snake their way between the various islands before going back to the Knysna Waterfront and heading into and around the Knysna Quays, with the course finishing at the Knysna Yacht Club.
There were 29 boats that completed the 11km race and 15 that did a second lap to complete the 22km edition. In the 11km, Giovanni Primo and Matthew Coetzer were the first K2 finishers, followed closely by John Collins and Nelson das Fontes in second and Ron Godfrey and Jerome Starkey in third. Neal Stephenson was the first K1 finisher with Frikkie Reynders second and Shawn de Villiers third.
The 22km racers dominated on pace, some even completing their first laps before the first 11km paddlers came in.
Thomas and Hamish Lovemore were the K2 winners in the 11km race. Photos: Blake Linder
The Lovemore brothers Thomas and Hamish were the winners of the K2 charge. Joshua Fenn followed them home as the first K1 finisher. Not long after, Greg Louw and Dan Meiring finished as the second K2 pairing with Brandon van der Walt and Josh Celyn-Cuthbert third in K2.
Next came Eugene van der Westhuizen as second in K1, with Jordan Klopper finishing third in K1.
'We bring you the latest Knysna, Garden Route news'
