Canoeing | Mocke triumph on Day 1 of the 2025 AJM Breede River Canoe Marathon

BONNIEVALE – Experience proved the trump card on the opening day of the 2025 AJM Breede River Canoe Marathon with vastly experienced brothers Dawid and Jasper Mocke edging out the Eastern Cape crew of Greg Louw and Matt Fenn for line honours of the 37km stage from Robertson to Bonnievale on Saturday.

Jasper Mocke and Dawid Mocke beat Greg Louw and Matt Fenn at the end of Day 1 of the AJM Breede River Canoe Marathon

Adding to what was a near perfect day for the Mocke family, Matt Coetzer and Dawid's son Sam Mocke lead the junior class in a very creditable seventh position overall.

In the race for honours in the other major categories, Kira Bester and Dyllan Farrell hold a big lead of more than five minutes over Neriyah Dill and Daniel Buys in the mixed doubles race, and Tayla Isaac and Rachel van Deventer are comfortably ahead in the women's event.

Out front, an early mistake in a tree block about three kilometres from the start meant Louw and Fenn were dropped off the large front group and then had to work hard "for about ten kays" to get back among the leading contenders.

In the low river conditions, the race became a war of attrition. While the Eastern Cape crew clawed their way back to the leaders, other crews dropped off the big front group until the stage became a two-boat race and Louw and Fenn were relieved to still be in contention as they paddled into the overnight stop.

Day 2 features deeper water and "better paddling conditions" which will better suit the Eastern Cape visitors, but Fenn was wary of making any predictions for Sunday.

"Sunday's stage is more of a paddling day and hopefully will not be as shallow," he said after the stage. "There was no sprint finish today so we don't know about a sprint, but they have years in a boat together and they have done a bit of tripping and raced it before."

The 33km second stage will see paddlers racing from Bonnievale to Swellendam.

Leading Results

OVERALL

1 Jasper Mocke & Dawid Mocke 2:31:43
2 Greg Louw & Matt Fenn 2:31:44
3 Mark Keeling & Kenny Rice 2:33:17
4 Mike Arthur & Riccardo Televi 2:34:34
5 Ron Benjano & Dominic Notten 2: 34:35
MIXED
1 Dyllan Farrell & Kira Bester 2:45:24
2 Neriyah Dill & Daniel Buys 2:50:49
3 Scheepers Schoeman & Melanie van Niekerk 2:53:08
WOMEN
1 Tayla Isaac & Rachel van Deventer 3:15:29
2 Biance Beavitt & Tamsin Lovelock 3:31:17
3 Bronwen Jillings & Tarryn Dietrich 4:10:50
JUNIORS
1 Matt Coetzer & Sam Mocke 2:43:04

Pics: Chris Hitchcock /Gameplan Media