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55th
WEYHERHAEUSER AuSABLE RIVER CANOE MARATHON
Six-time defending champs Jeff Kolka, 43, of Grayling,
Michigan, and Serge Corbin, 45, of St-Boniface de-Shawinigan, Quebec, paddled
their way to an unprecedented seventh consecutive victory Sunday, July 28 at
North America’s richest, toughest non-stop canoe race: the Weyerhaeuser AuSable
River Canoe Marathon. The pair claimed
the $5000 first place prize from a total purse of $50,000, the richest in North
American canoe racing.
The race started with a bang at 9 PM Saturday night in
Grayling Michigan. At the sound of the
starter’s pistol, 51 two-person teams ran 1/8-mile through the streets to the
AuSable River for the start of this 120 mile, 14 to 19 hour non-stop race. Thousands of fans lining the streets and the
riverbanks at Ray’s Canoe Livery gave the teams a rousing send-off on this epic
non-stop contest through the night and over 50,000 paddle strokes to the finish
line in Oscoda, on the shores of Lake Huron.
Water levels were slightly higher
than in 2001 but the winning pace for the race was relatively slow. Kolka and Corbin’s elapsed time of 15:04:56
(15 hours, 4 minutes, 56 seconds) was the second slowest Weyerhaeuser AuSable Marathon
winning time since 1978 and also only the second AuSable Marathon winning time
over 15 hours in 22 years.
This was Kolka’s seventh victory
on the AuSable course; Serge Corbin has now won the AuSable Marathon a record
breaking 16 times. In 1994, Corbin, with
partner Solomon Carriere of Cumberland House, Saskatchewan, set the AuSable
Marathon record with a winning time of 13:58:08. Serge Corbin is widely recognized as the
preeminent marathon canoe racer in North America, winning over 90% of the major
canoe races he has entered over the past 25 years.
Kolka and Corbin were tested early
in the race by a pair of up and coming young paddlers - Mo Harwood, 23, of Grayling, Michigan and his partner Matt Rimer, 18, of
Horton, Michigan. Harwood and Rimer
challenged the champs and the two teams pulled away from the rest of the pack
by nearly 2 minutes at the first timing location, Burton’s Landing, about 40
minutes into the race. At that point,
the champs and their young challengers were separated by only 9 seconds.
However,
the young bucks could not maintain the torrid pace set by the powerful
Kolka-Corbin duo and by the second timing location, Stephan Bridge, another 30
minutes into the race, the champs had widened the gap to forty-eight (48) seconds. They continued to pull away, eventually
building a lead that reach over 12 minutes in front of the second place team at
the Loud Dam portage, eleven (11) hours into the race.
At Loud Dam, another top Michigan
pairing - Bill Torongo, 40, Roscommon, Michigan
and partner John Sullivan, 32, of Grayling, Michigan – had moved into second
place and Harwood-Rimer had slipped
another four (4) minutes back into 3rd place, 15 minutes behind the
leaders. But the young duo was not done
yet! Harwood and Rimer worked with
another team, in canoe #5 - Bruce Barton, 45, of Homer, Michigan, and partner
Steve Lajoie, 26, of Vandreuil-Sur-Le-Lac, Quebec – to catch Torongo and
Sullivan by the next timing location, the Cooke Dam portage.
Then the
young pair discovered new-found energy and set a torrid pace to the last
portage on the 120 mile course, at Foote Dam, nearly 14 hours into the
race. Harwood and Rimer essentially
buried the competition, moving decisively into 2nd place, paddling
to a four (4) minute lead over the other challengers and gaining six (6)
minutes on the leaders and eventual winners, Kolka and Corbin.
Arriving
at the finish line in 15:10:22 (15 hours, 10 minutes, 22 seconds) Matt Rimer
attributed their excellent showing to “having worked very hard and having
benefited from excellent tutoring” from the same competitors who had finished
both just ahead of and behind them at the AuSable Marathon. Mo Harwood added, “This was the first time
I’ve successfully worked with a partner to paddle a smart race
tactically, not just a fast race or a hard race.”
At Foote
Dam, the last timing location before the finish line, three teams were battling
for third place, separated by only fourteen (14) seconds. None of the three teams had enough gas left
in the tank to make a strong push and they all crossed the finish line in
Oscoda separated by only 44 seconds.
Sullivan
and Torongo finished third, just shy of a minute behind Harwood and Rimer,
completing the race in 15:16:47. Barton
and Lajoie finished fourth in 15:17:05.
Clark Kent, 42, of Lapeer, Michigan, and his partner, Louis Berthiaume,
43, of Berthiville, Quebec, finished fifth in 15:17:31. Kent and Berthiaume were also the 2nd
place Masters finishers (both team members over age 40); Kolka and Corbin took
the first place Masters award. The third
place Masters Team finishers were Jon Webb, 42, of Hubbard Lake, Michigan, and
Doug Howard, 42, of Townsend, Vermont, who finished in 16:04:17, good for 15th
place overall.
Another pair of young paddlers,
brand new to the sport of marathon canoe racing, were the first place amateur
finishers. Brothers Rodney and Ryan
Halsted, 17 and 15 years old, respectively, of Grayling, Michigan, had
performed well at Michigan Canoe Racing Assn. (MCRA) races leading up to the
Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Marathon.
The young brothers took the first
place Amateur award at both the Harry Curley Race (in Oscoda) and the Spike’s
Challenge (in Grayling), the last two warm-up races before the main event – the
Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon.
They maintained their winning ways at the AuSable Marathon, taking the
first place amateur honors in 17:04:07 (17 hours, 4 minutes, seven seconds),
good for 30th place overall among 41 finishers.
Second place Amateur honors went
to canoe #130, Alfred Borchers, 18, of Grayling, Michigan, and Bob Stockton,
18, of Roscommon, Michigan, who completed the course in 17:20:39 (33rd
place overall). The third place Amateur
finishers were Robert Reed, 26, and Lee Barnett, 21, both of Grayling,
Michigan, with an elapsed time of 17:59:51 (40th place overall).
Taking the honors for the first
Mixed Team to cross the finish line, in 16:14:08 (18th place
overall) was a husab and wife team: Barb
Bradley, 45, and Allen Limberg, 44, of
Wausau, Wisconsin. The second place
Mixed Team finishers were a pair of paddlers from New York, Andy Melnychenko,
39, of Ithaca New York, and partner Lori Roseboom, 36, of Mount Vision, New
York. They completed the 120-mile
non-stop race in 16:14:55, good for 19th place overall. The Third place Mixed Team finishers were
another husband and wife team: Laura
Waldo, 39, and Glenn Walquist, 41, of Albion, Michigan, completing the race in
16:22:32, 22nd place overall.
The first place Seniors Team was
canoe #64, Joe Seifert, 50, of Grayling, Michigan, and partner Blaise St.
Pierre, of Lac St-Charles, Quebec, who finished in 16:21:45, good for 21st
place overall. A favorite among
Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Marathon fans – Amazing Al Widing, Sr., 77,
of Mio, Michigan, and partner Bernie Tuszynski, 45, of Gaylord, Michigan,
finished 29th out of 41 finishers, in 16:49:18. Widing has competed in the Marathon during
six (6) decades, entering and finishing over thirty of these grueling contests
during that time span and finishing as high as 2nd on several
occasions.
The last team to reach to Oscoda
finish line, completing the course in 18:05:31 (18 hours, 5 minutes, 31
seconds), was Frank Smutek, 68, of Luzerne, Michigan and Ashley Marsh, 25, of
Mio, Michigan. This was Frank Smutek’s
50th Anniversary at the Weyerhaeuser AuSable Marathon, having first
competed in this granddaddy of ultra-endurance events in 1952. Contestants must reach the Oscoda finish line
within 19 hours after the start of the race in Grayling to be recognized as
official finishers.
Of the 51 teams that started the
55th Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon, 41 teams completed
the race within the qualifying time of 19 hours. Ten teams withdrew from the race due to
illness, injury, damage to the canoe or due to missing mandatory cut-offs at
timing stations.
The
Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe Marathon, the middle jewel of prestigious
Triple Crown of Canoe Racing, is considered to be one of North America’s most
extreme endurance events. The two-person
teams must paddle 120 miles and over 50,000 paddle strokes non-stop through
darkness, inclement weather, and portage six hydroelectric dams while battling
the sheer mental and physical torture of up to 19 hours paddling at 50 to 80
paddle strokes per minute.
Not only are the seven-time
champs, Kolka and Corbin, on a roll at the AuSable Marathon, they also won the
Triple Crown of Canoe Racing championship in both 2000 & 2001. They one win away from achieving a
“triple-Triple” in 2002, having won the first leg of the Triple Crown, the
General Clinton Canoe Regatta, staged Memorial Day on New York’s Susquehanna
River and now the AuSable Marathon, the “middle jewel” of the Triple
Crown. La Classique de Canots, a three-day
race on the St. Maurice River, from LaTuque to Trois Riviere in Quebec over
Labor Day weekend, is the final leg of the three-race championship. Cash and prizes awarded at the three races
in the series total over $100,000.
Extensive information including complete race results,
photographs and entry information for the Weyerhaeuser AuSable River Canoe
Marathon is available on the at: http://www.ausablecanoemarathon.org
|
Finish Place |
Finish Time |
Team # |
Competitor |
Age |
City |
State/
Province |
Comments |
|
1 |
15:04:56 |
16 |
Jeff Kolka |
43 |
Grayling |
Michigan |
7th Consecutive AuSable Win |
|
1 |
|
16 |
Serge Corbin |
45 |
St. Boniface |
Quebec |
1st Place Masters Team |
|
2 |
15:10:22 |
3 |
Mo Harwood |
23 |
Grayling |
Michigan |
|
|
2 |
|
3 |
Matthew Rimer |
18 |
Horton |
Michigan |
|
|
3 |
15:16:47 |
1 |
John Sullivan |
32 |
Grayling |
Michigan |
|
|
3 |
|
1 |
Bill Torongo |
40 |
Roscommon |
Michigan |
|
|
4 |
15:17:05 |
5 |
Bruce Barton |
45 |
Homer |
Michigan |
|
|
4 |
|
5 |
Steve Lajoie |
26 |
Vaudreuil-Sur-Le-Lac |
Quebec |
|
|
5 |
15:17:31 |
82 |
Clark Kent |
42 |
Lapeer |
Michigan |
2nd Place Masters |
|
5 |
|
82 |
Louis Berthiaume |
43 |
Berthiville |
Quebec |
|
|
6 |
15:23:49 |
11 |
Rick Joy |
43 |
Silverwood |
Michigan |
|
|
6 |
|
11 |
Ted Kolka |
36 |
Grayling |
Michigan |
|
|
7 |
15:32:08 |
66 |
Steve Watson |
30 |
Onaway |
Michigan |
|
|
7 |
|
66 |
Al Shaver |
35 |
Meridale |
New York |
|
|
8 |
15:34:23 |
50 |
Erich Podjaske |
20 |
Grayling |
Michigan |
|
|
8 |
|
50 |
Dave Jensen |
38 |
San Jose |
California |
|
|
9 |
15:36:40 |
60 |
Mark Bialek |
31 |
Oscoda |
Michigan |
|
|
9 |
|
60 |
Tom Trudgeon |
43 |
Grayling |
Michigan |
|
|
10 |
15:39:07 |
10 |
Ian Cote |
30 |
Shawinigan |
Quebec |
|
|
10 |
|
10 |
Stephane Aubry |
30 |
Grand-Mere |
Quebec |
|
|
11 |
15:40:54 |
45 |
Serge Rouleau |
57 |
Grandes-Piles |
Quebec |
|
|
11 |
|
45 |
Francois Dagenais |
35 |