![\"2015D1AbbyAnna\"](\"http:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015D1AbbyAnna.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s nice to get a win on a river that I\u2019ve been paddling on since I was nine years old and obviously to get the win with a good mate like Andy (Birkett) makes it even more special!\u201d said Louw.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndy and I decided to try hold the guys off this morning and when we got to Baroda bridge we heard we\u2019d pulled a bit of time and so we put our heads down and went for it and that extra motivation was great,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Louw and Birkett enjoyed a flawless opening stage that handed them an overnight lead of two and a half minutes over rivals Hank McGregor and Jasper Mock\u00e9 and the pair called on all their experience as a combination as well as Louw\u2019s local river knowledge to claim the memorable victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a really special victory!\u201d said Birkett (Euro Steel). \u201cGreg and I have had a tough year; we\u2019ve really put in a lot of effort and haven\u2019t got some of the results we wanted so to pull off a win a Fish is a bit of a surprise but a really nice end to the season!\u201d<\/p>\n
McGregor (Jeep Team\/Kayak Centre) and Mock\u00e9 (Mock\u00e9 Paddling) put in a brave effort throughout the two day clash but in the end the effect of the long haul back from the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships in Taihiti was just too great and the pair had to settle for a deserved second place.<\/p>\n
Macsteel Maestros\u2019 Brandon van der Walt and Stu Maclaren started the day side-by-side with \u2018Fisher King\u2019 Len Jenkins and Soweto Canoe and Recreation Club\u2019s Siseko Ntondini and the two crews enjoyed a monumental tussle up until Jenkins and Ntondini edged ahead shortly before Chicken Run where Van der Walt and Maclaren ploughed into a rock and snapped their pedals.<\/p>\n
As ADreach\u2019s Jenkins and Ntondini surged on to claim a remarkable third while Van der Walt and Maclaren\u2019s misfortunes opened the doorway for Czech Republic\u2019s Jakub Adam and Michael Odvarko to cross the line in fourth ahead of the Cape youngsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was quite surprised by our third; out of everyone I think I was the most surprised!\u201d chuckled Jenkins afterwards. \u201cHats off to Siseko, he had all the fitness in the boat and I think I just added the experience!\u201d<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s race was the Solms and Ko\u017e\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1 show from start to finish as the unstoppable duo added a further six minutes to their near nine minute overnight buffer to retain the title they claimed so handsomely in 2013 together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had such a good race, everything worked out perfectly from start to finish and managed to pull off the win again,\u201d said Solms. \u201cWe were even in there, racing with the guys quite hard today up until Gauging Weir when we dropped off the pace a bit and recomposed ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to keep up my training after Marathon Worlds and then I came one week before Pre-Fish, which helped us so much during the race!\u201d explained Ko\u017e\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1, the recently crowned Marathon World Champ. \u201cThe river is completely different to flatwater marathon but I have really enjoyed it and Abby is the best driver!\u201d<\/p>\n
Olympic bronze medalist Bridgitte Hartley and surfski sensation Michelle Burn continued their success as a combination as they claimed second place while Epworth school girls Cana Peek and Donna Hutton had done enough on Friday\u2019s opening stage to claim third place overall despite Under 23\u2019s Jenna Ward and Kyeta Purchase (MacSquad Elite) finishing ahead of them on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The age group tussles saw Murray Starr and Louis Hattingh as well as Ward and Purchase claim the under 23 spoils respectively while Peek and Hutton were joined by Brandon Orpwood and Jarryd Gibson as junior winners.<\/p>\n
A strong showing by Western Cape Canoe Union saw the Inter-Provincial title head to the Mother City and surrounds.<\/p>\n
SUMMARY OF RESULTS – HANSA FISH RIVER CANOE MARATHON<\/strong> Overall Women U23 Men U23 Women Junior Boys Junior Girls Greg Louw has written his name into the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon record books by becoming the first Eastern Cape paddler in seventeen years …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015D2LouwBirkettSLIDER-150x50.jpg",150,50,true],"full":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015D2LouwBirkettSLIDER.jpg",1050,350,false]},"categories_names":{"2":{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/?cat=2"}},"tags_names":[],"comments_number":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1543,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1542\/revisions\/1543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSTAGE 2 (KNUTSFORD – CRADOCK SPORTS COMPLEX)<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n1.Greg Louw\/Andy Birkett 1:55.26 4:38.55
\n2.Hank McGregor\/Jasper Mock\u00e9 1:59.07 4:45.10
\n3.Len Jenkins\/Siseko Ntondini 1:58.41 4:48.51
\n4.Jakub Adam (CZE)\/Michael Odvarko (CZE) 1:59.44 4:50.53
\n5.Brandon van der Walt\/Stuart Maclaren 2:01.46 4:51.55
\n6.Murray Starr\/Louis Hattingh (U23) 2:02.19 4:54.21
\n7.Alan Houston\/Andrew Houston (U23) 2:02.11 4:57.53
\n8.Benjamin Bradford\/Owen Gandar 2:02.42 4:57.54
\n9.Tom Schilperoort\/Dawid Mock\u00e9 2:02.42 4:59.46
\n10.Thulani Mbanjwa\/Nhlanhla Cele 2:02.44 5:00.55
\n11.Gavin Shuter\/Dave Hamilton-Brown 2:06.18 5:02.01
\n12.Gene Prato\/Bryan Leroux (U23) 2:04.16 5:02.26
\n13.Brent Chiazzari\/Trenton Lamble 2:07.20 5:03.04
\n14.Lucas Mthalane\/Luke Stowman 2:04.58 5:05.17
\n15.Brandon Orpwood\/Jarryd Gibson (U18) 2:05.29 5:06.22
\n16.Sbonelo Khwela\/Banetse Nkhoesa 2:04.53 5:07.11
\n17.Adam Nisbet\/Luke Nisbet 2:02.18 5:07.28
\n18.Phineas Zulu\/Alex Roberts 2:08.22 5:07.48
\n19.Heinrich Schloms\/Gavin White 2:05.52 5:08.11
\n20.Abby Solms\/Anna Ko\u017e\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1 (1st Women) 2:07.51 5:08.47<\/p>\n
\n1.Abby Solms\/Anna Ko\u017e\u00ed\u0161kov\u00e1 2:07.51 5:08.47
\n2.Bridgitte Hartley\/Michelle Burn 2:14.29 5:24.15
\n3.Cana Peek\/Donna Hutton (U18) 2:15.57 5:29.27
\n4.Jenna Ward\/Kyeta Purchase (U23) 2:12.21 5:31.03
\n5.Alex Adie\/Nikki Mock\u00e9 2:22.02 5:42.03<\/p>\n
\n1. Murray Starr\/Louis Hattingh 2:02.19 4:54.21
\n2.Alan Houston\/Andrew Houston 2:02.11 4:57.53
\n3.Gene Prato\/Bryan Leroux 2:04.16 5:02.26<\/p>\n
\n1.Jenna Ward\/Kyeta Purchase 2:12.21 5:31.03<\/p>\n
\n1.Brandon Orpwood\/Jarryd Gibson 2:05.29 5:06.22
\n2.Mpilo Zondi\/Siyanda Gwamanda 2:10.49 5:13.36
\n3.Siyabonga Tyiki\/Bongani Ntinga 2:04.57 5:15.09<\/p>\n
\n1.Cana Peek\/Donna Hutton 2:15.57 5:29.27<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"