SA's oldest World Masters rower recalls Roodeplaat, leeches and snakes

John Price, at 93 the oldest member of the South African team that will compete at the World Rowing Masters Regatta next month, has witnessed much change at Roodeplaat Dam over the years.

About R9m has been pumped into revamping the facility for the September 21-24 showpiece into a world-class course, with new jetties and a starting pontoon.

But Pretoria-based Price remembers the days when there was a single boathouse next to Roodeplaat and rowers had to carry their boats through reeds to get to the water.

“Occasionally you’d have to pull leeches off your legs,” recounted Price, who tries to row every weekend, carrying his single-scull boat to and from the water.

He plans to race the single scull and the double with his daughter Harriet Walker.

Price’s national teammates will include several of South Africa’s top rowers, including Olympians from all editions of the Games from Barcelona 1992 until Tokyo 2020.

They include Ramon Di Clemente, who won the country’s first Olympic and world championship rowing medals with Don Cech in the early 2000s, London 2012 lightweight men’s four gold medallists James Thompson, Sizwe Ndlovu and John Smith, as well as Rio 2016 pair runners-up Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling.

Thompson and Smith, who won the 2014 lightweight double sculls world title in a world best time, will ride again together and compete in a four with Brittain and Keeling.

Also resuming an old partnership are Colleen Orsmond and Helen Fleming, who ended fifth at Sydney 2000.

Di Clemente said he lost 20kg after returning to training for the masters, having last competed seriously in 2011, adding it took about a year to get back into shape. “I can go strong for about 800 metres. I’ve just got to work at the last 200m. Luckily I can float that,” he said with a laugh.

Price, an attorney who is also part of a singing group which has performed at the Grahamstown Arts Festival, believes a vigorous workout is necessary to ensure good circulation and keep the brain healthy.

He starts most days by running on the spot and rowing on an ergo machine for up to 10 minutes. When it comes to food, nothing is off limits.

Price started rowing at Cambridge University as a way of keeping fit for rugby. “I enjoyed rowing more and left rugby,” he said.

He has never picked up a rowing injury, though he hurt his back doing heavy gardening and eventually underwent disc surgery when he was about 40.

“I haven’t had any pain since then,” he said.

The dam is almost unrecognisable compared to the days when he started out. He used to see zebra up close and once spotted a waterbuck swimming through the water.

“I saw a snake swimming across the water once and I followed it for a while. I think it was a python.”

And on another occasion, while seated in an eight, a green snake swam up and climbed into the boat, slithered across and went back into the water. “There was great panic,” recalled the Roodeplaat Rowing Club member.

But Roodeplaat, the only dam in Africa with a 2,000m rowing course (the Masters rowers will do only 1km), is the hub of South African rowing and was the breeding ground for all three of South Africa's Olympic medals, making it the only sport outside swimming and athletics to have won multiple Games gongs since readmission. 

About 900 competitors, about 70% international, will compete at the regatta. The youngest eligible age is 27 and organisers say Price will be the second-oldest competitor in the field.