![\"2014D2GregLouw500\"](\"http:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2014D2GregLouw500.jpg\")
<\/a>Knysna Racing\/Merrell\u2019s Louw claimed his first Hansa Fish title with doubles partner Andy Birkett in 2015 but is yet to finish on the podium in a K1, fourth place in 2012 his best individual result at his local race.<\/p>\nWhile buoyed by his maiden Fish victory last year and coming off a hard-fought second place at this past weekend\u2019s Breede River Canoe Marathon with Graeme Solomon (Bamboo Warehouse\/Knysna Racing), Louw is cautious to commit to any K1\/K2-double aspirations ahead of this year\u2019s clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Breede was good for Solly and I but I\u2019m still not quite in the shape I\u2019d like to be in and with a couple of work commitments between now and Fish and a little one to look after now too, life\u2019s taken a bit of a different path of late,\u201d explains Louw.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s also going to be another incredibly competitive year at the Fish this year, so a top five will be fantastic and if I can sneak onto someone\u2019s wave and somehow stay there, then maybe a podium could be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of the result, Louw, who originally hails from the small Karoo town of Cradock and now resides in Port Elizabeth, thoroughly enjoys the annual return to his old stomping yard and racing in front of his home crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes racing at home can be a bit of added pressure but for me it definitely gives me a massive boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trip back to Cradock for the Fish is almost like a Christmas holiday for me,\u201d chuckles Louw. \u201cThe whole Fish atmosphere is amazing and it\u2019s always great to go back to Cradock.\u201d<\/p>\n
While focusing much of his efforts on preparing for his own race, Louw believes his fellow K2 winning partner, Birkett (Euro Steel) poses the greatest threat ahead of this year\u2019s Hansa Fish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Andy will be the boat to beat this year,\u201d says Louw. \u201cHe\u2019s taking his preparations very seriously \u2013 coming down to do Pre-Fish, etc. \u2013 and so he should be in great shape come this year\u2019s Fish.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHank (McGregor) will obviously always be a factor too, so the title race between those two will be another really interesting one to watch!\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2016 Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon takes place from Grassridge Dam to Cradock Sports Complex on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
K2 defending champion and hometown hero, Greg Louw is preparing for another gruelling two days of racing between Grassridge Dam and Cradock Sports Complex at …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1916,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1915","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\/2016\/09\/2014D2GregLouwSLIDER-150x50.jpg",150,50,true],"full":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/2014D2GregLouwSLIDER.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\/1915","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=1915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1918,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1915\/revisions\/1918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}