![\"Former](\"http:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014D1AndyBirkett-800x533.jpg\")
<\/a>The EuroSteel athlete blew those theories out the water last year when he clinched the U23 flatwater crown in Copenhagen, Denmark though before adding a maiden Berg River Canoe Marathon to his rapidly growing list of achievements in July this year.<\/p>\n
The Hansa Fish is the next logical target for Birkett, albeit it a goal he may not have set himself for this year\u2019s clash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Hansa Fish is a race I haven\u2019t ever really done well in previously, I think my best result there has been an eighth,\u201d said Birkett.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been in the mix at Fish before so it would be cool to be up there this year. It would be pretty unchartered waters for me though! \u201d he added in his typically casual manner.<\/p>\n
The young star\u2019s philosophy on his previous Fish struggles is a simple one however something he believes may have already been taken care of indirectly through his recent change in focus in the KZN off-season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always struggled a bit at Fish because I\u2019ve never really been much of a winter paddler!\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp until last year I\u2019d never really paddled much then, I\u2019d always gone hiking or racing multisport instead. So when it came to Fish, my paddling was always pretty weak.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith me having started racing marathon last year though, I think that has improved now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebration of Birkett\u2019s golden Marathon World Champs debut last year came to a rather abrupt halt when his 2013 Hansa Fish K2 podium hopes with partner Cam Schoeman were dashed by World Champs travel-induced illness.<\/p>\n
Having recently landed back in South Africa after this year\u2019s Worlds in the US, Birkett is however feeling in good health and is confident things will be different this time around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fish is such a lekker race and it\u2019s great to catch up with everyone, hopefully this time I won\u2019t be sick,\u201d he chuckled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt always takes a day or two when you get home to bounce back but provided you do your best to stay healthy, I don\u2019t think the traveling takes too much out of you and I\u2019m sure the two weeks between Worlds and Fish this year will also help.<\/p>\n
The young competitor is disappointed that \u2018Fisher King\u2019 Len Jenkins won\u2019t be on the start line this year but believe it will be a tough encounter nonetheless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Hank (McGregor) and Greg (Louw) I\u2019m sure will be up there, Grant (van der Walt) has been training quite hard, Brandon (van der Walt) is going quite nicely too and lance (Kime) is always really good tactically. I\u2019m sure there will be a couple more guys in the mix as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad that Len won\u2019t be there but I think it will still be a good, competitive race!\u201d<\/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 Under-23 Marathon World Champ Andy Birkett feels his new focus on marathon racing will help him to be competitive at this year’s Hansa Fish …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-776","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\/10\/2014D1AndyBirkettSLIDER-150x50.jpg",150,50,true],"full":["https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014D1AndyBirkettSLIDER.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\/776","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=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":779,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fishmarathon.org.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}