2015 ICF World Championships Slalom
 
1
2
3
K1M
CZ J. PRSKAVEC
PL M. POLACZYK
US M. SMOLEN
K1W
CZ K. KUDEJOVA
DE R. FUNK
DE M. PFEIFER
C1M
GB D. FLORENCE
SI B. SAVSEK
GB R. WESTLEY
C1W
AU J. FOX
CZ K. HOSKOVA
ES N. VILARRUBLA
C2
DE ANTON/BENZIEN
FR PICCO/BISO
FR KLAUSS/PECHE

Marathon

Interview with marathon star Hank McGregor

canoe kayak marathon hank mcgregor interview south africa ocean river sportscene

Brad Morgan - Benoni's Homestead Lake hosts the South African Canoe Marathon Championships on 7 and 8 June, with the standard of competition expected to be at an all-time high. Included among the entrants are reigning and three-time world champion Hank McGregor and under-23 world champ Andy Birkett.

McGregor is coming off a superb surfski victory in the annual Molokai Challenge in Hawaii and it has taken him some time to adjust and prepare for flat-water marathon competition back in South Africa.

"The hardest part about it is motivation," he admitted in a telephonic interview on Tuesday. "Coming off a big win, it is always hard to refocus and to get ready for another big race, so maybe in the next couple of days I should get everything back in order, but I'm just trying to get over the jetlag in my system.

"The main thing is I just don't want to get sick in the next week. My immune system is quite weak from all the travelling. I'm just trying to keep my wits about me."

McGregor, the world champion in 2003, 2011 and 2013, also has to make a huge adjustment from competing on the ocean to competing on flat water. "It's completely opposite. You can't relate to it in any way," he said.

canoe kayak marathon hank mcgregor interview south africa ocean river sportscene "The sea is alive, it's moving, it's always changing, conditions are changing, whereas in marathon racing it's flat, the kayak is a totally different shape, a totally different feel, so it is completely opposite, which makes a huge difference.

"My whole mind-set has totally changed. The transition is a big gap, but I have done it many times before and sometimes it is actually nice."

While he is the defending world champion, McGregor is not taking anything for granted. First of all, he said, he has to earn his place in the South African team for the 2014 ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, which take place in Oklahoma City, USA, from 26 to 28 September.

"In South Africa, that is not the easiest thing, going off of our previous record and the number of medals that we have won in previous World Championships. We are definitely one of the toughest countries in which to make the team. Let me go step by step and make the team first and then I can focus on the Worlds, but small steps are needed first."

Should he make the team, McGregor said racing in the USA is something that could aid his bid to become a four-time world champion.

"I've never raced in the States for kayaking. I raced the Olympic sprint qualifiers there, but I have never raced the marathon," he shared.

"It is different, and for me particularly, I am used to travelling and a lot of guys don't travel well. With the amount of experience I have, it definitely helps.

"For the Europeans, it is not something in their back yard, so they have to travel a lot, they've got to adjust to time differences, whereas normally we're the people coming to them. Now they also have to travel. Some of them are good travellers, some of them aren't, so I think it definitely plays into my favour."

One of the pretenders to McGregor's crown is Natal Canoe Club's Andy Birkett, who earlier this year won his fourth Dusi Canoe Marathon title after teaming up with Sbonelo Zondi. Birkett, however, is coming off a bout of ill health after he travelled to contest the 5 000 metres in World Cup events in Milan, Italy, and Racice in the Czech Republic. 

canoe kayak marathon hank mcgregor interview south africa ocean river sportscene It has been far from ideal preparation, he said, but he is getting back on track once more. "I hadn't done a hard session until the beginning of last week. I've been trying to get myself into it, getting used to the speed again. I don't feel like I have become any weaker, I just feel like it is taking my body a little bit of time to feel the speed. Hopefully by the SA Marathon Champs I will be strong enough. I am just holding thumbs," Birkett said.

"It is a setback, but everyone has a setback here and there in the build-up to a race. I just have to take it in my stride and try to qualify [for the World Championships]. It won't be an easy feat for me because I know this is not what I would have wished for in my build-up, and now I'm thinking all I want to do is qualify. I am stressing about that now."

Remarkably, 2013, when he won the under-23 World Championships title, was Birkett's first season competing in the marathon, but making the South African team in the senior category this time around is no given, he said.

"I've heard that a lot of top guys are going to be at the SA Marathon Championships this year in the senior race, which is encouraging. They're all going to be trying to qualify for the team in K1s and K2s."

Despite the challenges he has faced in preparing for the Championships, Birkett said his preparations this time around were much better than they were a year ago.

"My build-up for the SA Marathon Champs has been almost twice as long as it was last year," he explained. "Last year, I was fit to race only in the week of the Champs really.

"My build-up has been better, my paddling has been going better this year, and maybe I can race a bit of a smarter race because this is my second time doing the SA Marathon Champs. I think I have come a long way since last year."

The SA Champs are set to be a very exciting weekend of racing with no fewer than six current World Champions participating. South Africa was ranked third in the world at the 2013 World Championships in Copenhagen, and the team is looking to build on that performance.

The Chairman of Canoeing South Africa's Marathon Committee, Brett Austen Smith commented: "South Africa is very highly regarded in world canoe marathon circles. The team is always shown huge respect both on and off the water at any international marathon event, be it on flat-water, rivers or in the sea. We are looking at building on that reputation over the next three to four years in the build-up to 2017 when we will be hosting the World Champs in Pietermaritzburg."

Photography: Gameplan Media