World award goes to McGregor
WHILE the canoeing community celebrates Hank McGregor winning the Athlete of the Year at the inaugural World Paddle Awards in Germany at the weekend, canoeing officials are hoping this will be the start of a golden period for South African paddling.
The eyes of paddling world shift to South Africa with the Marathon World Championships coming in 2017.
McGregor beat off Frenchman slalom master Fabien Lefevre and German Olympic C1 paddler Sebastian Brendel to claim the award, which was presented at a glittering ceremony in the Goldener Saal in Augsburg on Saturday night.
McGregor is a five-time marathon world champion, and became the first South African to win the K1 and K2 titles at the same world championships in Oklahoma City last year. His career includes wins at the tough Molokai Challenge surfski race and numerous domestic river marathon titles in South Africa.
He became the first athlete to win national singles and doubles titles in river marathon, flatwater marathon and surfski in the same calendar year.
“This award is really special to me as many sportsmen know that hard training and dedication sometimes goes by unnoticed,” said McGregor. “This award has made all the difference.”
It has sent ripples of appreciation around local and international paddling circles, many concurring that McGregor is the best all-round paddler to have emerged from the unique South African paddling community.
Local organisers of the sport have heralded the award as the start of a golden era for paddling in South Africa as the nation prepares to host the Marathon World Cup and African Championships in 2016 and the marathon World Championships in 2017.
“Hank McGregor has single handedly reinvigorated the interest in flatwater marathon racing in South Africa,” said Canoeing South Africa’s marathon committee chairman Brett Austin Smith.
“In a country obsessed with river racing, his consistent achievements at a flatwater world marathon championships level have sparked a resurgence of interest across the country, which has helped to lay the foundation for the successful bid to bring the marathon world championships to Camps Drift.”