Hank McGregor (47) duly swept home on Saturday for an incredible 14th Berg River Canoe Marathon win, maintaining his solid 10-minute lead as he paddled to the finish of the four-day event in Velddrif with teammate Siseko Ntondini (32) on his wave.
Second place, a mere 24 seconds ahead of Ntondini, went to 53-year-old Robbie Herreveld – making the combined ages of the two top paddlers an amazing 100 years, according to a press release by the Berg River Canoe Marathon.
McGregor and his Euro Steel teammate, Ntondini, had broken away midway through the 57 kilometre stage and worked together, but Herreveld – a six-times previous winner – managed to keep them in sight to the finish and just hang on for second overall, the same position he finished in 2024, the press release stated.
KZN paddler Jenna Nisbett, second on the day, won the woman’s race by six minutes from East London’s Nix Birkett, who won the first and final stages.
“It was a magic day,” McGregor said.
“There was quite a strong headwind in the last five kilometres and the incoming tide didn’t help, but we had a great day. It was great paddling with my teammate Siseko,” he added.
It was McGregor’s 14th win in 17 starts – he first win coming 25 years ago in 2000 – but he said afterwards he would still have a think about returning: “I say that every year though … anyway, now is the time for some good red wine”.
Veteran Herreveld said: “I got worked over today. They dropped me on the portage – old men can’t run – and I tried to catch them all the way, but couldn’t quite get there.”
Ntondini said he was very grateful to McGregor for “looking after me” and paid tribute to Herreveld’s toughness, the press release stated.
Nisbett said she was “absolutely exhausted” and the event – often in bitter cold driving rain – had been particularly tough this year. She also said the wind on the final stage had been trying, “but what would the Berg be without the wind”.
“I’m really happy to win, but to me every finisher of this race is a winner.”
Birkett had pulled ahead about 35km into the stage after some “argy bargy” with a group of men paddlers.
“I hung on but Jenna fell off the group. I’m so stoked with second.”
It was Nisbett’s third win in the prestigious event, which she described as “incredibly well-organised … congratulations to the orgsanisers and the sponsors”.
Behind the elite racers there were a number of remarkable achievements, none more impressive that Oom Jannie Malherbe finishing his 52 Berg River Canoe Marathon, according to the press release.
The three-time race winner in 1963, 1964 and 1965 now holds the remarkable record of finishing 52 out of 63 races that have taken place.
Two other notable finishers were Lisa Scott, who completed her 15th marathon and tops the list of women’s finishers, and Carel Botha who completed a remarkable month of endurance sporting activity by finishing the Comrades Marathon, Freedom Challenge (non-stop mountain bike race from Pietermaritzburg to Paarl) and Berg River Canoe Marathon within a month.
