Defending champion canoeist Hank McGregor scored a significant double on a full Umgeni River on Sunday, winning the Lighthouse Designs Ozzie Gladwin race with his new MyLife Dusi partner, Matt Millward, and with it the prized SA K2 river marathon title.

McGregor, of Salt Rock, was the dominant force over the 26km course from Albert Falls to Thornvale Farm, tactically steering Millward to the 2022 title.

They held off main challengers Thulani Mbanjwa and Msawenkosi Mtolo in a well-timed break in the second half of the race, to hand McGregor his seventh win at the event by more than a minute.

Stewart Little and Bongani Ntinga made up the balance on the podium.

“It was our first major outing together.” said a delighted McGregor. We just seemed to click and ran well.

“We had one or two things we needed to sort out during the race.

“The pump inlet pulled off the seat when we put in after the portage so we wasted a bit of time there.

“We managed to break away midway through The Cascades and finished on our own,” said the Euro Steel star.

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