McGregor takes K1 crown at world champs

HANK McGregor bagged a seventh world title when he mastered a powerful field and tough weather conditions to win the Men’s K1 crown at the ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships in Germany.

McGregor’s compatriot, Andy Birkett, grabbed his first senior medal to complete a historic South African one:two.

Racing in rainy, windy conditions that left the vast expanse of the Brandenburg an den Havel lake choppy and difficult to manage, McGregor raced a tactically superb race to stay in command of a threatening nine boat front bunch, with Spaniard Jose Ramalho and Hungary’s Adrian Boros always well positioned.

It was McGregor’s sixth K1 title, defending the K1 crown the  Euro Steel athlete won in Gyor last year, to go with the K2 crown that he won with Jasper Mocké in Oklahoma in 2014.

“Racing against some of the best paddlers, if not the best paddlers, and I managed to pull it off when it really counted. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a totally different type of racing, with sometimes fifteen guys on the front bunch. But that’s the World Championships, against the best of the best. To have my countryman working together with me was great. I am really happy,” he said after the race.

The silver medal is a massive result for Birkett, who won the U23 K1 world title in Copenhagen.

“I am super stoked to have been in such a tough race. I looked at the bunch around at before the last portage with about seven or eight boats and thought that if I can somehow get a medal I would be so stoked. To come second I feel like I have just won the race,” said Birkett.

The competition concludes on Sunday with the K2 races for senior men and women, and the junior boys.

For more information visit www.canoesa.org.za