McGregor sets an appointment with Dusi after a great victory at the 50 Miler

Water level was perfect this year. Photo Darren Goddard (Cycho Media)

After seven years Hank McGregor was coming back to race the 50 Miler, which takes place over stages 2 and 3 of the Dusi Unlimited, the big race of the South African summer. McGregor, who lives and trains in Durban, place of arrival of both races, has always found more difficult to win at home than anywhere else in the world. The long portages are often a handicap difficult to compensate in the river. But maybe the fact that the water level was perfect this last weekend and that the organizers decided to open for paddling some sections that are of compulsory portage in the Dusi, have been factors that have played a chance for McGregor this time.

On Saturday, McGregor wanted from the very start to make clear that he was going for victory, setting a very strong pace that only could be followed by Len Jenkins, Andrew Birkett and the young Don Wewege, but it didn't take very long before Jenkins and McGregor, that in absence of Grant van der Walt were then the clear favorites, decided it was time to push a little more to let Wewege and Birkett fall back.

Len Jenkins Jr. remains unbeaten at Fish River Marathon after his 6th K1 title. Michele Eray takes her first in Women.

The Natal Canoe Club paddler, Len Jenkins Jr., claimed this weekend his sixth consecutive K1 title at the Fish River Marathon, held at Cradock (Eastern Cape, South Africa), getting that way the SA K1 title. At the same time, Michele Eray  keeps getting titles this season 2012 and claimed victory in the Senior Women category with a good superiority on her rivals.

The 1,416 paddlers who took the start crossed Grassridge Dam facing a long first stage for 47 km. down to Knutsford. Two and a half kilometres further, they portaged the dam wall and strated paddling the river itself.

Jenkins and McGregor entering Keith's Flyover, with Grant van der Walt 50 metres behind. Foto: Jetline Action Photo

From the first strokes, Len Jenkins took the lead with a wide group following his wash, up to twenty paddlers with Jacques Theron and Hank McGregor at Jenkins' first wash. But the portage was not wide enough for so many people, so it made a first selection. Theron lost the good pace and Brandon van der Walt joined a three paddlers group on the lead along with McGregor and Jenkins. Just 5 minutes later, shooting Double Trouble at Collet's Weir, Jenkins got trapped facing upstream at the second jump and lost some precious seconds. He had then to make an extra effort to overpass Greg Louw, Lance Kime and Cam Schoeman to arrive at feared Keith's Flyover rapid leading the race again.

Renata Csay steps into legend at Rome. Campos and Alonso, new marathon world champions in C1 and K1

This is the article we have written in colabroation with Sportscene.tv, where you can read it and see all the results archive and pictures of the championships. Check it at this link.

Renata Csay (HUN) this morning at Rome

This morning Hungarian legend Renata Csay won her 11th world title in the K1 Senior Women's race, becoming the most decorated marathon paddler ever, just surpassing another legend, Spanish Manuel Busto, who has ten golds so far. In the other two races Spain has showed its potential in this discipline by taking another two gold medals; Manuel Antonio 'Tono' Campos is the new world champion in C1 Senior Men and Iván Alonso is the same in K1 Men.

Races started in fair weather with an exciting starting list, where marathon experts met some sprinters after finishing their Sprint season in London. Marathon paddlers draw on their valuable experience and today was not an exception.

K1 Women

In the women's race, we could see from the start that, with Renata Csay (HUN) around, other contestants were only limited to go for silver.

The 35 year old mother of two refused a tactical race from the very start and just paddled away doing the whole 6 laps on her own. With a firm pace, seconds started to pull away from the chasing group, composed of locals Stefania Cicali and Anna Alberti (ITA), London 2012 Olympian Henriette Engel Hansen (DEN), Berenike Faldum (BUL) and Krizstina Bedoecs (AUT). Already on the second lap, they split and only Cicali and Faldum remained chasing Csay, while Hansen, Bedoecs and Alberti stayed together in the third group. Not much followed after that, with Csay widening the gap to one and a half minutes, so the interest was in the fight for silver between Cicali and Faldum. The Italian tried twice at the portages to escape, but she was caught again in the water. On the third attempt and with one lap to go, Stefania Cicali managed to assure second place while Renata Csay, already touching gold, slowed her pace down a bit.