Loveday Zondi of Electrical Products, ACTOM’s top canoeist, after suffering a setback in this year’s three-day 120 km Dusi Marathon, which he finished in 25th place overall on March 20, recovered his form in the subsequent races in which he competed, including the ultra-gruelling NonStopDusi on April 9, finishing fifth overall in 9 hours 48 minutes.
Loveday Zondi (front) and Seseko Ntondini in the Freedom Challenge – their first sea race.
Another contest the 36-year-old took part in during the first half of the year included the two-day Umkomaas race near Ixopo in northern KwaZulu-Natal at the end of March, when he and his racing partner Richard Cele, 33, made it to the finish in seventh place overall.
A new challenge came in the form of the 27 km Freedom Challenge around Robben Island off Cape Town on Freedom Day (April 27), when Loveday and his partner for this event – none other than Seseko Ntondini, 26, one of the two top canoeists whose experiences while doing Dusi in 2014 provided the basis for the exciting 2017 adventure movie “Beyond the River” – both competing in a sea race for the first time, did well to finish in 65th place overall out of a total 250 contestants.