MARATHON canoeing world champion, Hank McGregor, jetted home last week savouring his sixth title won in the World Marathon Championships, adding a third successive K1 title to a silver medal with Jasper Mocké in the K2 race in Gyor, Hungary.

McGregor was met at the airport by a group of friends and supporters, led by his wife, Pippa, and one-year-old son, Thorsten, who was happy to handle the brace of medals his dad had to show them.

McGregor said that the weekend had been a whirlwind and he was slowly appreciating the enormity of this third back-to-back K1 title, a feat that puts him in the same league as the Spanish marathon icon, Manuel Busto Fernandez.

“Just to be mentioned in the same breath as Busto is an honour, it’s just as important to be appreciated by my fellow countrymen. I got a standing ovation from all my teammates when I finally got back to the hotel on Saturday night after doing the drug testing and missing the shuttle bus.

“As a team, we were on top of the world. I think I inspired a lot of people for the next day’s racing, and obviously a lot of people around the world, showing that it’s not over until it’s over,” he said.

McGregor is now preparing for the long haul flight to Tahiti for the Surfski World Championships, from where he has to rush home to make the start of the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon in the Eastern Cape, where he is the defending champion.