Burn blazes to win number four

CANOE Marathon World Champion Hank McGregor and South African women’s surfski standout Michelle Burn’s dominance of the 2014 Varsity College Marine Surfski Series continued in Friday’s Bay Union Surfski Challenge, race five of the ten-leg series, as they stormed to their fourth victories of competition.

With the rapid growth of women’s surfski paddling in the region, competition amongst KZN’s female stars has also enjoyed a sharp rise in recent years. This increased level of competition amongst the ladies, coupled with a poor start, did however see Burn having to dig far deeper than she had hoped.

“It was nice to get my fourth win of the series but that was much harder than necessary!” chuckled Burn afterwards. I had the worst start ever! I was the last person off the beach because I just wasn’t ready and so, by the time we got out to the first buoy, the other girls already had about 50 meters on me!

“It was great to see so many girls back on the water again but that also meant I really had to work hard to get back up to them,” she said.

A north easterly wind in the hours leading up to the event meant paddlers had to deal with tricky yet enjoyable conditions however the early exertion meant it wasn’t until the second half of the race that Burn was able to take advantage of the open ocean runs and stamp her authority on the encounter.

Like Burn, McGregor claimed his fourth victory of the series after he cruised home ahead of uMhlanga’s Matt Bouman and Durban North’s Grant van der Walt and now requires just two more positive results from the remaining five races in order to win yet another series title.