April 18, 2005
By Lucille Davie
Johannesburg University student Shaun Rubenstein is provincial Paddler of the Year, again. The award was made at the Dabulamanzi Canoe Club in Emmarentia at the weekend; he first held the title in 2002.
Rubenstein, who is 21 years old and has been paddling for five years, says he has trained "really, really hard" in the past year. "I have been lucky - it has all come together in the last few years."
He is a close personal friend of Graeme Pope-Ellis, the Dusi King who has 15 Dusi wins under his belt. "He is my role model," says Rubenstein, though he adds that his father has completed 20 Dusi Canoe Marathons.
But there is another factor: enjoyment, which drives him to put in four hours of training every day. Rubenstein is a member of the Ekurhuleni Kayak Club, in Benoni, where every morning between 8am and 10am, and every evening between 4pm and 6pm he can be spotted on the dam, leaning into his paddle, streaking across the water.
Rubenstein also got a number of other awards on Sunday, 17 April - all of which he was won before: his Protea Colours (representing South Africa at the world championships), the South African Federated Colours (representing South Africa at international events that were not world championships), and Gauteng Colours (for making the national team).
He was not alone: 19 other canoeists received national and federation colours, in the sprint, marathon, canoe polo and wild water categories, and provincial colours were awarded to 25 canoeists. The awards ceremony was presided over by the Gauteng Canoe Union, and held at the clubhouse of the Dabulamanzi Canoe Club at Emmarentia Dam.
Rubenstein won the 2004 South African Marathon title in Bloemfontein and picked up a bronze medal at the 2004 World Marathon Championships in Norway. Special excellence awards went to Rubenstein and Alan van Coller, who was declared Sprinter of the Year. Van Coller represented South Africa at the Athens Olympics last year.
Rubenstein, who lives in Edenvale, is studying sports management at the University of Johannesburg, and is aware that diet is an important part of his training. He eats a carefully balanced diet of carbohydrates, protein and fat, taking advice from the company that sponsors him. He says his mother has had a hard time keeping the fridge fully stocked, but she is obviously a quick learner.
He did the country's premier endurance canoe race, the Dusi, back in the old days - when he was 18 - but his focus now is on sprinting. This weekend he and another upcoming canoeist, Michael Mbanjwa, originally from KwaZulu-Natal, will be heading to Pietermaritzburg, in KwaZulu-Natal, to participate in the South African Sprint Championships, a one-kilometre sprint on Nagel Dam.
Mbanjwa came sixth in this year's Dusi Canoe Marathon, earning a gold medal, and a special excellence award at this weekend's award ceremony. Another novice canoeist, Loveday Zondi, also picked up a gold medal at this year's Dusi, coming third in the race. He, too, received a special excellence award on Sunday.
Rubenstein and Mbanjwa have been paddling together for two years, and leave on Tuesday for Pietermaritzburg. Rubenstein says of the sprint this weekend, "It is going to be tough - there are two boats from KwaZulu-Natal and one from the Cape. We have done the work, we just have to make it happen on the day."
Mbanjwa, 22, is equally as self-assured. "I feel confident; I am ready, I am sure Shaun is ready."
The two are planning ahead - they are hoping to enter the sprint section in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
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