HANK McGregor and Jasper Mocké powered to an impressive victory in South Africa’s premier one-day canoeing race, the Ozzie Gladwin, presented by Parklane Superspar, on Sunday. In the women’s race, Abby Adie and Anna Adamová dominated to finish a strong 21st overall.

“We didn’t know what to expect. We’re up against pure Dusi crews here and I said to Jasper just before the start we have to try and stay in contention and hopefully catch up on the water, but we seemed to dominate the portage and we got out first and put in first, so that’s a big confidence boost for the two of us so early in the season,” said McGregor after clinching victory.

“It was fun. We had enough of a buffer and we didn’t leave anything to chance.”

The pair’s victory comes on the heels of their win in the Vaal Canoe Marathon last weekend, which also served as SA K2 River Marathon Championships.

“We got into the boat for the first time just over a week ago, just before the Vaal, and straight away felt nice and comfortable,” said Mocké.

Conditions were cool and windless and the Albert Falls Dam flat, making for a very fast start to the event over the 4km lap that led to the 1km run around the dam wall.

Women’s winners Adie and Adamová bent their rudder at the Cascades Rapid, but not even the loss of one or two minutes put them under pressure.

“We’ve had a good day,” said Adie. “It was quite relaxed, especially on the dam. We just hung with the other girls and then just before the portage we put in an interval and broke ahead. From the portage there was no looking back and we pulled away.”

“It was so hard,” Adamová laughed as she described the portage. The Czech star recently finished second in the K1 division and third in the K2s at the Marathon World Championships and based upon the pair’s early season form, they are going to very tough to beat in the 2014 Dusi Canoe Marathon.