Police are investigating after a former world champion paddler almost drowned in the Berg River Canoe Marathon.
|||Cape Town - A police investigation is under way after a former world champion paddler almost drowned on Thursday in the Berg River Canoe Marathon when he was trapped under a newly felled tree lying in the river.
The route had been checked ahead of the race and the river had been clear at that time.
The paddler, Ben Brown, won the first stage of the race on Wednesday and was third in the field when the incident happened.
Race organiser Andre Collins said shortly before the halfway mark at Gouda bridge, veteran champion Graeme Solomon rounded a corner to find a huge gum tree in the river, its branches in the path of the paddlers.
“He managed to back-paddle, and Lance King behind him managed to turn and paddle to the far left, but when Ben came round the corner he capsized and was washed under the tree,” Collins said.
“The water was fast-flowing and very dangerous. Ben was trapped under there for a long time. He was in trouble - it was touch-and-go.”
Eventually, a young farmer on the river bank raced to Brown’s aid, and extricated him and his canoe from the underwater tangle.
Brown decided to continue with the race once he found his paddle, even though he had lost a crucial pin holding his seat in place, preventing him him from paddling at top speed to try to catch the leaders.
Collins has asked police to look into the incident and has launched his own urgent investigation into who cut the tree down in the lead-up to the race. Police have confirmed they are looking into the incident.
“We checked the river for obstacles on Monday and it was clear,” said Collins. “Before the race, we post specialist police divers at all potentially hazardous obstacles.
“We have approached Nature Conservation to see if it was there Working on Water teams, or someone else. But who the hell expects massive trees to suddenly be chopped down in the lead-up to this world-famous race?”
Brown, 27 was Great Britain’s first male junior marathon world champion and in 2010 was crowned senior marathon world champion by the International Canoeing Federation.
On day one of the Berg, he became the first British paddler to claim a stage of the Western Cape’s premier canoe marathon since John Fowler in 1979.
Brown told Die Burger the ordeal had been “a nightmare” and the most dangerous of his paddling career - describing how he had tried to swim under the branches but had been trapped by his canoe.
“When you are trapped between a canoe full of water and a river full of branches, there is nowhere to go,” he said.
He lost around 15 minutes, leaving his title bid in tatters.
“It’s obviously hugely disappointing. After I lost 10 or 15 minutes in that tree block I thought that’s it, but I managed to pick myself back up and then I really enjoyed paddling on this beautiful river here in the Western Cape,” Brown told the race organisers.
Cape Argus