Marathon lovers flock to McGregor Series race four
It was a race for young and old at the Bidvest McCarthy Toyota Durban North Race, Race Four of the 2017 Euro Steel McGregor Paddle Series on Friday evening.
THE 2017 Euro Steel McGregor Paddle Series returned to its Blue Lagoon home base on Friday evening as Race Four, the Bidvest McCarthy Toyota Durban North Race, once again saw plenty of enthusiastic paddlers of all ages take on one of the two distances.
Last weeks’ event in Pietermaritzburg attracted over 70 guppies to the short 4km course and this week organisers saw a similar number of young, junior paddlers take to the water where they could see the world champion Hank McGregor himself in action.
Series founder McGregor has been at the top end of marathon racing for over a decade and to have the opportunity to pass on his knowledge to younger paddlers and to see the interest in paddling growing makes it worthwhile for him.
With the 2017 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships just two weeks’ away and paddlers starting to wind their preparations down as they converge on Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg, the McGregor Series gives paddlers a brief sense of the meaning of marathon paddling.
Although the event is only staged over eight kilometres, the tactics and fundamentals are the same and having paddlers racing in marathon conditions can only be beneficial to South African paddling.
From a racing perspective it was Hank McGregor who claimed his second victory in as many weeks ahead of the young Lovemore brothers with the younger Hamish beating Tom to second place.
In the ladies race the K2 of Jenna Ward and Nikki Russell were the strongest with the young Christie Mackenzie finishing as the first ladies K1 home followed by Sweden’s Emma Anderson.
The shorter 4km course was won by Bryan and Luke Taylor with Lee McGregor and Lorna Oliver finishing second ahead of the Furby duo of Lee and son Aiden in third.
Matthew Swemmer won the stand-up paddleboarding section ahead of Jacqueline Lecourt de Billot in second and Brendon Germaine in third place.
The final race of the 2017 Euro Steel McGregor Paddle Series will return to Camps Drift in Pietermaritzburg for the FNB Race next Friday.
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