Monday 12 November 2012

Tim Jacobs retain title at the Steelcase Dragon Run of surfski in Hong Kong

Tim Jacobs (AUS) entering the finish line to retain title. Photo: Nora Tam
The Australian Tim Jacobs won last Saturday the Steelcase Dragon Run, surfski race in Hong Kong, part of the World Series of this discipline. The amount of the prizes and the fact that the end of the series is close (in December in Cape Town), participation was really prominent, with the best specialists in the field. 
As it was presumed, Australians and South Africans ruled the race and only Walter Bouzán and Portuguese Andre Santos got into top positions among the contestants from down under. The number of figures in search of the $ 5,000 winner prize made nerves to be present from the beginning, including a false start. Once given the good one, a dozen paddlers stood out significantly from the rest of the competitors, with a very quick first third of the race. In the words of Dawid Mocke "is always like that lately, eight kilometers at a very fast pace and then let's see see who can stand it". In a race of 23 miles and the light wind conditions and heat present in this edition, only the most skilled could retain the strength until the finish line.


That was the tactic of the Australian Tim Jacobs. In a conservative background within the leading group, went on the offensive at mid-race, when some of the contenders began to fall back. In one of the stretches of open sea, linked some sprints surfing the swells and left behind in the blink of an eye to Dawid Mocke whoe was at that time leading the race. Dawid later acknowledged that he lacked concentration to keep track of the Australian and after just blowed up, being surpassed by Grant van der Walt, McGregor and Hill.

So Jacobs finally claimed victory, leading comfortably by half a minute over Grant van der Walt, second, who got the same distance on McGregor, third. Out of the podium arrived Corey Hill (AUS) just a hundred meters back, while Dawid Mocke managed to retain fifth place, far from his expectations, but ensuring overall victory in the Surfski World Series 2012. Walter Bouzán, who made the first third of the course within the leading group, eventually fell down to 12th place, more than eight minutes behind Jacobs.


The leading group crossing Hong Kong bay. Photo: Barbara Yendell

In the Women race, the Australian Olympian Naomi Flood was able to win in ahead of Michele Eray, who had to settle for second place. Third place went to the Australian Ruth Highman. In this category had its significance an incident during the competition with a barge trailing a damaged ship. Not realizing the development of the raced, both vessels crossed the race course once the leading group of men had passed, causing the race officials to make signals in a rush paddlers approaching and the impossibility of stopping the boats. The great danger came not from paddling around the ships themselves, but because the gap between them had thick steel cables for towing, which was really dangerous. Before fastening cables, Naomi Flood went through the two boats in a straight line, while Michele Eray and had to attend to the officials instructions, wasting precious time that he could not recover after. But the brave paddler from Plettenberg Bay acknowledged at the end of the race that would have been difficult to beat Flood, as on such calm conditions she suffered a lot from the start and had to fight hard to arrive to the finish line in a very good second position.


Meanwhile, in the double surfski, Oscar Chalupsky went for victory together with Shaky Kumta, who was the winner of an auction open for charity purposes by the Sea School of Hong Kong, awarding the second seat on the great Oscar Chalupsky's SS2 partner for the race. The amount of the donation would be used for a charity and to support the presence of two paddlers of the Sea School in the next edition of the Molokai in May 2013.


Here you have the results with the top paddlers in each category. To see the complete list, just click on this link.



Name Country Division Overall Place Time Model Category Place
Tim Jacobs AUS SS1-MALE 1 01:34:01 Nelo - OceanSki 1st SS1-M
Grant van der Walt ZAF SS1-MALE 2 01:34:30 Epic-V14 2nd SS1-M
Hank McGregor ZAF SS1-MALE 3 01:35:00 Fenn-Elite-SL 3rd SS1-M
Cory Hill AUS SS1-MALE 4 01:35:24 Epic-V14 4th SS1-M
Dawid Mocke ZAF SS1-MALE 5 01:36:21 Fenn-Elite 5th SS1-M
Sean Rice ZAF SS1-MALE 6 01:36:26 Think - Uno Max 6th SS1-M
Jeremy Cotter AUS SS1-MALE 7 01:36:58 Fenn-Elite SL 7th SS1-M
Matthew Bouman ZAF SS1-MALE 8 01:37:23 Epic-V14 8th SS1-M
Jasper Mocke ZAF SS1-MALE 9 01:40:20 Fenn-Elite SL 9th SS1-M
Michael Booth AUS SS1-MALE 10 01:41:13 Think - Uno Max 10th SS1-M
Greg Tobin AUS SS1-MALE 11 01:41:45 Think - Uno Max 11th SS1-M
Walter Bouzan Sanchez SPN SS1-MALE 12 01:42:53 Nelo - OceanSki 12th SS1-M
Sam Fuller AUS SS1-MALE 13 01:43:37 Fenn-Elite SL 13th SS1-M
Andre Santos POR SS1-MALE 14 01:44:56 Nelo - OceanSki 14th SS1-M
Dean Little AUS SS1-MALE 15 01:45:09 Fenn-Swordfish 15th SS1-M
Dane Sloss AUS SS1-MALE 16 01:46:27 Other 16th SS1-M
Dean Beament AUS SS1-MALE 17 01:47:35 Fenn-Elite SL 17th SS1-M
Ryan Lysaught AUS SS1-MALE 18 01:48:59 Epic-V10 18th SS1-M
Stewart O'Regan AUS SS1-MALE 19 01:51:36 Think - Uno Max 19th SS1-M
Naomi Flood AUS SS1-FEMALE 20 01:51:46 Fenn-Elite SL 1st SS1-F
Rene Appel HKG SS1-MALE 21 01:52:33 Epic-V12 20th SS1-M
Michele Eray ZAF SS1-FEMALE 22 01:52:38 Nelo - OceanSki 2nd SS1-F
Steve Taylor HKG SS1-MALE 23 01:53:09 Fenn-Swordfish 21st SS1-M
Ruth Highman AUS SS1-FEMALE 24 01:53:15 Epic-V10 3rd SS1-F
Shaky Kumta/Oscar Chalupsky ZAF SS2-OPEN 25 01:53:53 Epic-V10 Double 1st SS2-O

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