ANDY Birkett and Greg Louw pulled off a stunning victory in the two day Breede River Canoe Marathon that decided the SA K2 River Marathon title on the weekend, edging out world marathon champion Hank McGregor and his partner Jasper Mocké in a thrilling endsprint into the finish at Kambati Resort outside Swellendam, while Alex Adie and Nikki Mocké dominated the women’s race.
The two crews started the second stage of the race side by side after a needle first stage, raced on a medium level river from Robertson to Bonnievale, with both crews using the event to fine tune their preparations for the World Marathon Championships K2 race in the USA in three weeks time.
The title decider came down to an endsprint through the heavily treed channels into Kambati, with Birkett and Louw breaking away to set up a straight shoot out with McGregor and Jasper Mocké which they clinched by the slimmest of margins.
“This race was first and foremost part of our preparations for the world marathon champs,” explained Louw. “We have been training together in Plett and came off a big training session on the Friday before the race.
“To be able to win the race, where I have a long history of admin and problems, is great, and to win against athletes of the class of a world champion in Hank McGregor and Jasper Mocké is awesome.”
“I am pretty excited about the South African team’s chances at the world champs now,” added Louw. “Brandon van der Walt and Stu McLaren are going so well, and that’s the Under 23 team for the worlds as well.”
