McGregor overcomes the ‘super cold’ temperature and tree blocks

BRIDGETOWN: Hank McGregor got his challenge for a record tenth Berg River Canoe Marathon title off to the perfect start yesterday when he raced to a sizeable victory in the four day race’s altered first stage from Hermon to Bridgetown while Cape Town’s Bianca Beavitt dominated the women’s opening clash.

For only the second time in the races 54 year history the race did not start in Paarl but at Hermon, 45km downriver, due to the low level of the river and the encroaching water hyacinth.

Freezing mid-morning temperatures and countless tree blocks on the very low Berg River meant McGregor’s fellow title hopefuls weren’t the only challenge the nine time race winner was forced to overcome.

“The water level definitely made it a lot harder, jumping in an out of our boats like a rabbit for the first forty minutes was really tough and there were a lot more obstacles in the river than normal,” explained the Jeep Team/Kayak Centre paddler.

“It was also super cold – this morning was one of the coldest mornings I’ve ever started at the Berg – while the lack of water flow made it a long first day on the water,” he added.

Despite the variety of challenges, it wasn’t until the dying stages that the deadlock for the lead between McGregor and defending champ Andy Birkett was broken and the five-time Marathon World Champion notched up a significant three minute lead.

“After Solomon dropped off Andy and I had a great, clean race for the last two hours of the day,” said McGregor.

“With three or so kilometers to go Andy and I came to an obstacle; I jumped out and ran around while he paddled and when I put in again I turned back and saw I had a gap of twenty meters.

“We smiled at each other and I thought I’d try make Andy hurt a little bit.

“When I turned back again I had about a hundred meters on him and that’s when I looked to really capitalize and stretch him,” he added.

The last-minute withdrawal of 2014 women’s race winner Abby Solms due to illness opened the doorway for surfski convert Bianca Beavitt to challenge for her maiden Berg title.

While the likes of Robyn Henderson and Joritha Prins gave it their all, they could do little to counter the dominance of the Century City competitor who wasted little time in powering her way to a commanding stage victory that sees her with one hand on the trophy already.

“I raced today exactly how I had planned to approach today,” said Beavitt. “It got a little tricky once I caught some of A batch just as we were going through some of the tree blocks but some of the guys actually looked to me to take control, even though I was the lady driver!” she laughed.

Today sees paddlers tackle the race’s regular second stage stretch from Zonquasdrift to Bridgetown.