Hank powers to another national title

Five-times marathon world champion Hank McGregor claimed yet another national title at the weekend’s Two Day Klip River Canoe Marathon.

The event doubled as the 2015 SA K1 Championships and the Salt Rock paddler streaked home ahead of local paddler Siseko Ntondini following two days of hard racing.

The Jeep Team/Kayak Centre star claimed the top step of the podium on both days and finished in an overall time of 4 hours 40 minutes while runner-up Ntondini was the first under-23 and Gauteng local across the line three minutes, just a second ahead of Soweto Canoeing and Recreation Club (SCARC) team mate Thando Ngamlana.

The Gauteng four-man team of Ntondini, Ngamlana, Alex Roberts and Phineas Zulu won the team provincial event with a combined time of 19h20 ahead of the KwaZulu-Natal outfit of Hank, James Tutton, Marion Young and Mike Halliday.

Hank, who went into the race having never raced on the Klip River before, was pleasantly surprised by both the race and the river.

“I went into the race blind but I had a really great time,” said Hank.

“It was super fun with surprises around every corner which was something that I really appreciated, it was a great adventure!”

Although the race might have been missing a number of the country’s top river marathoners, Hank found himself still having to work hard at the beginning of the race to stay with the local paddlers in the foreign conditions.

“We had quite a long portage early on in the race and my running isn’t great at the moment so I found myself at the back of A Batch following the portage and having to negotiate my way through the field which was a new adventure for me.

“The SCARC guys are all gearing up for the Dusi and are in great running form at the moment so they got away from me a bit on the portage and then the river is really narrow, probably a boat length wide, so getting through the field and trying to catch the guys was probably the hardest part,” he said.

The recent father felt that the race was demanding throughout and kept the paddlers guessing.

“Having to get through tree blocks as well as negotiating the rapids meant that the race was really demanding on your river skills and I underestimated the race and was caught a little unaware but I would really want to come back and do it again,” said Hank.