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Subject: Non-political Sports News Article on Burma [Sunday Times - South

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24 January 1999
Sports
Dreyer leaves Dusi greats gasping on Burma Road 

by: GRANT SHIMMIN

  AN astounding run over the gruelling Burma Road portage and, to a lesser
extent, the courage to follow the advice of more experienced paddlers,
propelled little known Western Cape competitor Martin Dreyer to a stunning
victory in the Powerade Dusi Canoe Marathon yesterday.Dreyer, 30, competing
in only his second singles Dusi, powered home a staggering 3min 36sec ahead
of two-time K1 champion Kevin White, with two more local men, Wayne Volek
and another former champion, John Edmonds, a further 1:17 and 1:19 back
respectively.
Amazingly, at one stage before the paddlers reached Burma Road, less than 90
seconds covered the first six paddlers and it was anybody's race. 

Kelby Murray, the overnight leader, was in fifth place, 1:16 behind White,
after taking a swim at Side Shute rapid. Seventeen-year-old Maritzburg
College pupil Len Jenkins, who eventually finished fifth, was 10 seconds
behind him.

That set the scene for dramatic happenings on the heartbreaking slog over
Burma Road and it was Dreyer who provided the fireworks.

Taking his boat out of the Umgeni about 23sec behind White, he passed him,
in the latter's words, "chop chop", before surging up the hill away from the
chasing pack. By the time he reached the put-in point he had opened up an
amazing three-and-a-half minute gap over White, with Edmonds in third and
Volek, the only contender to chance his arm with the rapids rather than go
over the hill, in fourth. The race was over as a contest.

"No-one in this field could have stayed with Martin over Burma," said White. 

"We didn't give him enough credit in this race."

"He must have done a sub-30," added Edmonds of Dreyer's power run. "That
used to be the standard, but it doesn't happen anymore." Amazingly Dreyer,
who spent five years as a commercial fisherman in Canada - an option taken
up, by his own admission, to avoid national service - did not have a
detailed race plan or an adequate support team.

At the second-day stop on the Inanda Dam, when he officially lay fourth, but
was effectively joint second with White and Edmonds, 90 seconds behind
Murray, he sought advice from fellow competitor Ant Rowan and defending
singles champion Mark Perrow, not competing this year due to injury, on the
approach to the third day.


It was Perrow who convinced him to go for broke and shoot the treacherous
Top's Needle rapid, just after the portage over the Inanda Dam wall, and the
Pumphouse Weirs, after the Burma Road put-in. "Mark's advice was to go big
and I went and shot Top's and the Pumphouse Weirs last night for the first
time," Murray admitted.

Perrow explained: "I asked him: 'Do you want to go for a win, or do you want
to defend your position?' When I asked: 'Who's meeting you on Burma?' and he
said no-one, I said: 'Okay, I'll meet you there tomorrow,'" explained
Perrow, who was officially employed by a Johannesburg radio station.

"He was absolutely frightening going over Burma Road. I've never seen
anything like it. He charged over there like a bull elephant," Perrow said. 

There will be much speculation over whether Murray might have held on had he
not fallen out, but White, who had to eat Dreyer's dust, was doubtful. "We
had made up time on Kelby," said White, who had closed to 45sec before Side
Shute, with Dreyer just behind him.

"Martin's running is definitely far better than anyone else's. He's a Danny
Biggs who can paddle," White added.

After that drama, there was little tension in the women's race, where Debbie
Whitton extended a 10-minute lead over Wendy White by six minutes. 

Herman Chalupsky and Derek Macaskill were not extended in securing a
55-minute advantage over Oscar Chalupsky and Kaizer Chiefs hero Doctor
Khumalo in the celebrity event.

However, there was time for spectators to see the amazing feat of
51-year-old Dusi King Graeme Pope-Ellis, who just achieved his personal goal
of a top-20 finish, finishing a little over 40 minutes behind Dreyer.