{"id":746,"date":"2014-09-23T15:53:46","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T15:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/?p=746"},"modified":"2014-09-23T15:53:46","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T15:53:46","slug":"van-der-walt-to-battle-the-big-boys-for-2014-fish-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/?p=746","title":{"rendered":"Van der Walt to battle \u2018the big boys\u2019 for 2014 Fish crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Junior and Under-23 Canoe Marathon World Champion Grant van der Walt feels he has an advantage over several of the elite stars going into this year\u2019s Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon in Cradock, Eastern Cape on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 October, and is eager to take full advantage of the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Team Jeep\/Varsity College’s Grant van der Walt (centre) is quietly eyeing the 2014’s K1 Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon title having clinched four K2 wins with Hank McGregor (left) at the race previously.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The young ace is quietly building a title contesting campaign in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal and while a podium would be satisfactory, van der Walt is secretly hoping to make the top step of the podium his own in 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never want to say you\u2019re going to a race to win it because then you automatically make yourself a target and open yourself up to questions and abuse when you don\u2019t achieve your goals but let\u2019s just say I\u2019m not going to the Fish for a green salad!\u201d described van der Walt.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to believe I\u2019ll be competitive at the Fish this year. I\u2019ve been on the podium the past couple of years and I\u2019d really like to be there again this year, if not win the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve won the Drak (in 2013), SA Surfski Champs in 2009 and multiple doubles titles but the Fish has been the one I\u2019ve been going to the longest and enjoyed the most so to win it would be fantastic!<\/p>\n

\u201cA top ten I\u2019d be happy and a podium would be great but a win would make me the happiest guy around!\u201d added the Team Jeep\/Varsity College athlete.<\/p>\n

Van der Walt is a four-time K2 Hansa Fish winner having successfully partnered Hank McGregor to victory in 2008, 2010, 2011 and 2013 however a K1 title at his favourite race on the South African calendar would be an even greater achievement in his books.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast K1 Fish I was a bit unlucky on day one when I took a swim after the portage shortly after Keith\u2019s (Flyover) and lost contact with Hank (McGregor) and Len (Jenkins).<\/p>\n

\u201cI managed to get back to them midway through day two but I\u2019d used up so much energy doing so that I just couldn\u2019t stay with them towards the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learnt from that though. I now know to rather slow down just a little and lose a couple of seconds than rush things and make mistakes which can cost you two or three minutes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m older, wiser and hopefully not slower now than I was then plus I\u2019ve got two more years of racing under my belt now so hopefully that bodes well for me at the Fish this year,\u201d said van der Walt.<\/p>\n

With a standard water release annually and most of the top contenders having competed at the event on countless occasions previously the scales are fairly even.<\/p>\n

Van der Walt does however believe he has one added trick up his sleeve which may prove decisive in his 2014 title challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the river level having been the same for the past however many years, you can\u2019t say you know the river better than any of the other top guys. The rapids don\u2019t change, the flat water is pretty much the same each year, the portages are the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the guys who are also likely to be at the front of the race at Fish this year are all over in the US for Marathon Worlds though, and that really is a big bonus for me!<\/p>\n

\u201cHank, Andy (Birkett), Greg (Louw) as well guys like my brother (Brandon van der Walt) and Stu MacLaren are all going to have to try peak for an event as big as a World Champs is, go through all the traveling that\u2019s related to that and then get up for another big event shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really tough for anyone to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

The ICF Canoe Marathon World Championships, as well as the ICF Canoe Marathon Masters World cup, take place in Oklahoma City, USA from 23-27 September and team South Africa goes there with high medal expectations.<\/p>\n

The rip isn\u2019t without consequences for those also eyeing Fish success though, as van der Walt knows all too well.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year Hank and I were lucky enough to travel home a day earlier than those who were competing in the K2 Worlds events and even then we were still battling a bit with flu and fatigue at Fish but we saw just how much of a difference that extra day of recovery made when it came to racing in Cradock!<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously some guys travel more and better than others but usually Worlds are in Europe and recovering from the travels to and from there, whilst also trying staying healthy throughout, is tough enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year Worlds are in the States so the guys going over have the added issue of major jetlag to deal with while trying to prepare for an event that is three times the distance of a marathon event just two weeks later.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo not going to Worlds definitely has worked out in my favour when it comes to this year\u2019s Fish!\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Hansa Fish River Canoe marathon takes place on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 October 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Junior and Under-23 Canoe Marathon World Champion Grant van der Walt feels he has an advantage over several of the elite stars going into …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-746","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\/2014\/09\/2012D2Lead3GWSLIDER-150x50.jpg",150,50,true],"full":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/2012D2Lead3GWSLIDER.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\/746","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=746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":749,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746\/revisions\/749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}