McGregor and Fenn top the men’s field

CAPE TOWN – With an impressive record of three wins in the last four years, defending champions Hank McGregor and Josh Fenn are clearly the crew to beat at this weekend’s Prescient Freedom Paddle.

With most of the crews for this weekend’s annual Freedom Day race around Robben Island now finalised, the race looks to be something of a battle to hold onto South Africa’s most successful canoeist and his young Eastern Cape partner.

The veteran multiple World Canoeing Champion and Fenn have dominated the short history of the event, winning three times in a row in 2020, 2021 and 2022, and then making it four out of five last year.

The only black mark in their otherwise perfect record in this event is an impressive second-place finish to Andy Birkett and Nic Notten in 2022. McGregor also won the 2019 race with Birkett.

This year’s chasing pack will include a few new-look crews. Two-time winner Notten is teaming up with Shaun Rubenstein, while Notten’s partner in his 2018 victory, and the only other previous winner in the event, Jasper Mocke, will be paddling with Mark Keeling in a crew that is tipped as potential winners.

Uli Hart also has been a regular in the front bunch as the crews round Robben Island, but his four top-five finishes do not yet include an elusive victory, and he is hoping Wayne Jacobs can help him change that stat.

Entrants have the option of two distances on Saturday April 27. The majority of the field will tackle the full 27km route, which takes all competitors on the historic route from the Oceana Power Boat Club, around Robben Island and back to the start.

The additional shorter 10km route, introduced in 2023, is sanctioned by Lifesaving SA and caters for those paddlers and lifeguards who are not confident enough for the long, open-water route around Robben Island. That course begins from Oceana but takes paddlers west along the coastline to a turning buoy off Sea Point, before returning to the start/finish area.

The event is open to all human paddle-powered craft that are seaworthy enough to complete the course. This includes surfskis, lifesaving paddle boats, stand-up paddle boards, ocean skulls and ocean kayaks.