Gold and silver for champ

Salt Rock’s Hank McGregor successfully defended his world K1 title and secured a silver medal with partner Jasper Mocké at the 2015 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Gyõr, Hungary this past weekend.

McGregor and Mocké was unable to defend their K2 title when they were pipped at the post in an enthralling end sprint against the Hungarian pair of Adrián Boros and László Solti and the Spanish contingent of Álvaro Fernández and Walter Bouzán.

This year’s World Champs was a tough one for McGregor and he had to really work hard to defend his K1 title.

A rare mistake saw McGregor fall back in his K1 race, but his sheer determination and a lack of concentration from the Hungarian leader, Adrián Boros, offered him a golden opportunity.

He managed to take the win just fractions of a second ahead of Boros and Spain’s Ivan Alonso.

The men’s K2 race was always going to be a tough affair for the South African duo’s of McGregor and Mocké as well as Andy Birkett and Greg Louw.

Speaking after the race, Mocké highlighted a turning point heading into the final few kilometres when a mistake at the last portage cost them.

“We had to go deeper due to the pressure and as we were getting in we took on quite a lot of water!”

He congratulated the Hungarian winners and said the young guys with the incredible hometown support were able to just dig a bit deeper.

With just under a kilometre to go the South African pair put in a massive pull that got them a slight gap going into the final 500 metres, however the determination of the Hungarian pair helped them edge out their competitors right at the end.

“With about 800 metres to go we really put everything on the line and managed to get in front and to be honest I thought that they were not going to catch us,” said Mocké.

“When you are ahead then the finish bouys just seem to get further away, not closer!”

The pair of Birkett and Louw were in the race for a large portion of the first half, however they fell off the chasing bunch and came home in twelfth place overall.

In one of the surprises of the event the young South African K2 of Jenna Ward and Kyeta Purchase produced a performance well beyond their years as they finished fifth in the women’s K2 event on Sunday.