Ruta Maya canoe race
With over fifty entrants from all over the country and over twenty thousand dollars in cash prizes and gifts La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge has in only two short years propelled itself to the highest level of Belizean sporting events. In earlier reports we’ve carried news of the start and finish of the four-day event. Tonight News Five’s Stewart Krohn and cameraman Rick Romero have put together a more complete account.
The event has to be pretty special to get over a hundred and fifty participants and nearly ten times that many spectators out on the banks of the Macal River at five-thirty in the morning. But then again La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge is no ordinary canoe race. Over the next four days these 54 teams will paddle through the picturesque heart of this country, all the way down to the Caribbean Sea… to show their concern for the waterway’s health… and to hopefully grab a share of over fifteen thousand dollars in cash.
In only its second year the race has drawn entrants from a half dozen different countries… but while the foreigners come for fun it’s the Belizeans who have their eyes on the prize. In 1998 the Hob brothers of Bullet Tree, sponsored by The Snooty Fox, cruised to an easy victory. This year they hope to repeat, but suspect that the going may not be so easy.
Mike Waight, Sponsor, Snooty Fox
“We’ve been preparing for this race. We know that we’re going to have stiffer competition this year. The field is more level; everybody knows what to expect. There are a lot of guys that have been on the river last year so they know all the runs and all the tricks but we are prepared.”
Julio Hob, 1998 Champion, Snooty Fox
“There are no tricks; it’s just to have that energy and that mind ready because a lot of guys, a lot of teams are going to compete and they want to be the champion. And today we will see who is the best in this race.”
Of course confidence comes easy to those who have yet to experience the agony of four days on the river and fifty thousand strokes of the paddle. Fallet Young believes that a lifetime spent on the river at Bermudian Landing will give his team an edge.
Fallet Young, Canoeist, Bermudian Landing
“Many of the younger guys do not have the endurance that I have at this present time, right. So experience will tell and endurance. I think that with my team we have what it takes to be in the top ten.”
For many of the teams, including a good many eager amateurs, the object is just to finish the race.
Richard Harrison, Race Chairman
“This is a new sport. A lot of people who never were sportsmen or were recognized as people who could be heroes, they are out here today; they are on the water”
And more than a few enthusiasts were also on the shore, on hand to give their favorite team some last minute support.
Ismael Garcia
(on bullhorn) “Wake up San Ignacio. Wake up Santa Elena. Wake up all the villages along the Western Highway. Here comes La Ruta Maya ’99.”
And when it was time to paddle the start of the Belize River Challenge was no less dramatic than the Tour de France or Indianapolis Five Hundred.
The mad dash for early station prizes quickly settled down to a point where each team, in the misty silence of a lonely river, tried to establish its own pace… For the next three days these intrepid souls traveled not only down a majestic waterway, but also paddled back into time… and saw sights that their ancestors would have found familiar. Even the faces which emerged from the surrounding villages and jungles would not have been out of place in an ancient Maya trading center… or a 19th century Mahogany camp.
Stewart Krohn
“Four days and 175 miles from where they started, not one of the 54 teams has dropped out, but only one will be crowned kings of the river.”
At the end of the first three legs the team from Gales Point, sponsored by Cheers restaurant, had built up a commanding 12-minute lead. But on the last day, as the Belize River moved from the hills of Cayo toward its rendezvous with the Caribbean, the high tech team from Black Rock Resort made a run for the championship. Despite grabbing every station prize between Burrell Boom and Belize City their effort was not enough: the steady rhythm of the men from Manatee proved overwhelming. Although on this day they crossed finish line in second place the Cheers team took home the overall championship and a total of close to nine thousand dollars in prizes. For the winners, it was all in a day’s work.
Q: “It’s been a great day for Gales Point. How do you feel after four days?
Leonard Myers, 1999 Champion, Cheers
“Well I feel just in shape; I am ready to go sailing this afternoon about 2:30.”
John Moore, 1999 Champion, Cheers
“From I was a little kid I deal a lot with canoes, paddling around the lagoons. So I think we are a bit fit.”
Albert Welch, 1999 Champion, Cheers
“As I first started I was conscious that we had more experience than them so I was in there.”
Stewart Krohn
“For the rest of the paddlers there’s always next year. Virtually all of them say that after a good massage they’ll be ready. Stewart Krohn for News Five.”
Organizers would like to thank all those companies and individuals which sponsored the race as well as the individual teams. It is hoped that next year’s event will offer even more prize money and also raise funds for efforts to clean up and preserve Belize’s rivers.
