VELDDRIF – KZN came and conquered the 64th Berg River Canoe Marathon which finished in Velddrif on Saturday, with Hank McGregor leading home a provincial 1-2-3 for paddlers east of the Drakensberg.
While the podium was made up exclusively of KwaZulu-Natal paddlers McGregor (Team Euro Steel), Jeremy Maher and Msawenkosi Mtolo (Plastic & Chemical Trading), the other provinces will be quick to point out there was a bit of fortune in their provincial domination.
Nobody will dispute McGregor was a deserved and dominant winner. The 11-time World Champion notched up is 15th win in the famous race and extended his record as the oldest winner to 48 years. His four stage wins leave absolutely no argument that he was the best on the water all week.
Except for some drama on Day 2 when he made a few silly mistakes and was forced to work hard for his stage victory, McGregor was in control throughout. Tactically and on pure boat speed, nobody was really able to put the experienced veteran under too much pressure.
The only paddler who created some pressure for McGregor was young 22-year-old Maties student Joshua Glyn-Cuthbert, who ended fifth behind Paarl’s Heinrich Schloms. The Western Cape faithful will indignantly – and rightly – claim he would have finished second overall had it not been for some dreadful bad luck on Day 3, when his paddler wedged in a treeblock and the shaft snapped. Of course the KZN comeback to that is that the Stellenbosch-based student is a product of Maritzburg College.
Adding to the provincial indignation is the fact third-placed Tom Lovemore (Salt) from Knysna was forced out due to illness before the start of the last day, as was Peninsula’s Anders Hart when he could have at least challenged Mtolo for a place on the podium.
Thankfully for the Western Cape faithful, the women’s race was a top-to-bottom clean-sweep for the host province with young rising star Neriyah Dill (Salt) winning three stages to annihilate all opposition, and lead home an all-Peninsula podium completed by Christy Shrimpton and Natasha Bradford.
Dill was even more dominant than McGregor on Days 1 to 3, and had it not been for illness on the final stage – where she finished second, five minutes behind Shrimpton – the 20-year-old would surely also have enjoyed four stage victories. As it was, despite a tough final day as she fought illness, Dill ended more than an hour ahead of her nearest rival in the overall standings.
Dill may just be 20-years-old and – unlike McGregor – still very much on the way up a learning curve, but clearly she is taking on the lessons learnt from her two previous Berg River Marathons.
“From the first day I tried to go bit harder than the previous years,” said the young champion. “I was told not to go too hard in the previous years, but then you also lose a lot of time and you are too far behind.”
Dill was referring to her 2024 race when she lost 12 minutes on Day 1 and, despite winning two of the remaining three days, ended just six minutes behind overall winner Stephanie von der Heyde.
“So I managed to do that and I had a great first day, and then also an amazing second day. Also a really strong third day, but I think that maybe that hammered me a bit because I got sick overnight and I did not know if I was going to finish Day 4.”
For McGregor, Day 4 on Saturday was also hard work, but a good finish to a great race.
“The last stage was a proper Berg day: cold weather and shallow water,” said the Durban-based paddler. “Fortunately, the tide was going out with us, so the last 10 or 15 kays we could actually feel a bit of assistance. But it was a great group of guys I was paddling with today with good sportsmanship, and we left it all out on the water with some hard racing.”
“You reminisce the past and I guess you only appreciate day’s like this when you’ve had really horrible ones … like last year was a terrible last day, so this one was a purler.”
Not surprisingly the world’s most successful marathon kayak paddler was “very happy” with his victory.
“Yeah, it’s quite incredible when I start doing the stats and facts and stuff and see 18 starts with 15 wins – I am very happy.”
His rivals may not be quite so happy as he looks too a future that, despite his age, may still contain a few more races to win.
“If I can stay fit and healthy enough, maybe you’ll see me on the Berg for a while – I think I’d love to do one maybe with my wife and maybe one with my son as well.”
In the short-term, McGregor leaves the Berg with one goal, and that is to fill a gap in his trophy cabinet that irks him, despite all his other successes.
“I’ve got world surfski champs in Spain in October. So that’s my big one for the year and as I have said before, it’s one title I have never won – so I’d love to put that on the mantelpiece.”
If the Berg is any indicator, it will take a brave man to bet against the 48-year-old filling that final gap in his paddling CV.
SELECTED RESULTS
Men
(under position, name, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Overall)
1 Hank McGregor (4:42:35, 3:36:18, 5:45:59, 4:31:00) 18:35:54
2 Jeremy Maher (4:52:12, 3:39:10, 5:46:01, 4:31:03) 18:48:27
3 Msawenkosi Mtolo (4:45:27, 3:51:52, 5:53:20, 4:31:29) 19:02:09
4 Heinrich Schloms (4:52:53, 3:44:27, 5:56:33, 4:36:07) 19:10:02
5 Joshua Glyn-Cuthbert (4:42:36, 3:38:51, 6:21:04, 4:31:05) 19:13:38
6 Paul Marais (4:55:57, 3:50:51, 5:56:33, 4:36:12) 19:19:34
7 Daniel Buys (5:02:48, 3:52:07, 5:59:33, 4:32:08) 19:26:37
8 Zamokuhle Meyiwa (4:54:03, 3:54:56, 5:58:31, 4:43:28) 19:30:58
9 Sibusiso Zulu (5:02:01, 3:50:08, 5:56:34, 4:43:31) 19:32:16
10 Stefaans Erlank (5:02:02, 3:50:07, 6:10:23, 4:43:28) 19:46:01
Women
1 Neriyah Dill (5.23.33, 4:05:07, 6:25:03, 5:19:47) 21:13:31
2 Christy Shrimpton (5.35.36, 4:27:18, 6:59:08, 5:14:57) 22:17:00
3 Natasha Bradford (5.46.03, 4:34:10, 7:05:18, 5:31:51) 22:57:24
