McGregor returns home to defend titles
Paddler, Hank McGregor, is racing home from taking part in an event in Hawaii, to defend his SA titles.
FIVE time Marathon World Champion Hank McGregor is locked in a race against time as he jets home from Hawaii to try and defend his national titles at the South African Marathon Championships at Camps Drift this weekend and says his biggest challenge will come from shrugging off the jetlag.
McGregor was in Hawaii for the Maui Jim Molokai Challenge, a gruelling 53km crossing from Molokai to Oahu that saw him finish third to Australians Cory Hill and Clint Robinson.
The fatigued McGregor then started his circuitous return to South Africa via New York on a three day journey that will see the reigning K1 and K2 SA Marathon Champ return to Durban on Wednesday, with his K1 title defence scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
There's no margin for error for McGregor as the SA Champs also serve as the one-off trial for the national team to go to the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships later in the year, and with only two boats selected in each class McGregor will have to dig deep to secure a berth in the K1 and K2 races to enable him to try and defend his double world titles in Gy?r, Hungary in September.
With McGregor focusing on his surfski training for the last few months in his bid to win another Molokai title, the 37 year-old Jeep Team/Kayak Centre star will have to refocus his skills to the unique demands of flatwater marathoning with its critical portages.
“I haven't been in a canoe in a while so I’m looking forward to the change. I just wish I had some more time to get my head around focusing on a 53km surfski beast of a race and now a 30km obstacle canoe race, but I will just do the best I can,” said McGregor.
McGregor has a proud record at both national and international marathon racing level and will be determined to try and retain both the singles and doubles titles that he won in Gauteng last year, which will bring with it the assured place in the national teams to the world champs in September.
“I would like to make both K1 and K2 national teams again but South Africa's senior men's team is the number one ranked marathon team in the world. You have to be 100 per cent if you want to be in contention to make the side to tour to World Champs later in the year,” said McGregor.
He said that he was looking forward to teaming up with Cape surfski ace Jasper Mocké, with whom he won the K2 world crown in Oklahoma City last year, for the doubles racing on Sunday and hopes that the chemistry that worked in 2014 will reignite once more.
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