South Africa’s multiple world champion paddler Hank McGregor (Jeep Team) fought fiercely against a world-class field of paddlers at the 40th annual Molokai Surfski World Championships in Hawaii on Saturday, finishing the 53-km race in 3rd place, just minutes behind Australians Cory Hill (1st) and Clint Robinson (2nd).

McGregor, who won the race in 2014, was a dominant force throughout, leading the field until the final 2 km when Hill took an inside line at the Portlock Point that saw him pull ahead of McGregor and Robinson to finish in a time of 3h22m17s.

McGregor completed the race across the Kaiwi, one of the world’s roughest ocean channels, in 3h26m13s – nine minutes faster than his 2014 winning time of 3h35m17s.

Fellow South African and current I.C.F Surfski World Champion, Sean Rice, finished in 4th, with Australia’s Michael Booth in 5th and South Africa’s former World Series Champion Dawid Mocke in 6th.

McGregor is now on his way back to South Africa to compete in the 2015 South African Canoe Marathon Championships, which take place in Pietermaritzburg on 6 June.

Other Jeep Team news…

MTB

Back in South Africa, Jeep Team’s Pierre Smith stood his ground against some of the country’s top MTB riders to finish 8th at Race#1 of the Gauteng Nissan Trailseeker Series, which took place at Buffelsdrift near Pretoria on Saturday. Nico Bell claimed podium top step with Ben Melt Swanepoel in 2nd and Neil Robinson 3rd.

Trail Running

On Saturday, Jeep Team’s Claudia Richard placed 6th in the 20-km Van Gaalens Trail Run at the Van Gaalens Cheese Farm in the North West Province.