After finishing third in the 20 Beaches event in Australia, Former Junior World Champion Oscar Jones is sure to be in contention at the Biogen Pete Marlin next weekend. Photo by Allan Coker /20 Beaches
EAST LONDON – The Biogen Pete Marlin Surfski Race will see a huge showdown for bragging rights in the men’s event from a potent entry of all South Africa’s top paddlers, and an Australian interloper thrown in to add to some intrigue on November 2-3.
The Pete Marlin is comfortably the biggest surfski race in the country, with more than 330 individuals taking part in the two-day festival of downwind ocean racing that has attracted a total of 600 entries for the combined singles and doubles races.
With a big prize-fund of well over R140 000, there is a strong financial incentive for the top paddlers to battle for victory, and the event has attracted the cream of South African surfski paddlers, as well as a sprinkling of overseas competitors.
In the men’s race, Hank McGregor is back to defend his title, but the 2023 champion will have to be at his best to collect his fourth win, with a huge fleet of young guns aiming to claim the prestigious title.
While the 11-time world canoeing marathon champion may be in something of a battle against age, nobody can suggest the 46-year-old is anything other than still a world beater. His third place in the recent ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships is ample proof he is still one of the best in the world and the paddler to beat in any local event.
The evergreen McGregor’s biggest challenge could come from any one of six South Africans who packed the top placings at the World Champs, while young Australian Oscar Jones proved two weeks ago that he is back to his best and also a potential winner.
At the World Champs in Madeira Island earlier this month, McGregor led home a dominant South African team which filled five of the top ten positions in the singles race. East London local Matt Fenn followed McGregor home in fourth overall to claim the U23 world title, and they were chased across the line by former World Champions Kenny Rice (fifth) and Nic Notten (sixth), while current South African champion, Cape Town’s Uli Hart, rounded out the top 10. Then came Mark Keeling in 14th with Dawid Mocke one place further back in 15th.
These seven South African stars, along with the experienced Josh Fenn, are expected to lead the battle for victory, with Australian wildcard Jones also likely to be mixing it up with the South Africans at the front of the pack.
Jones has not had many results over the past 12 months after he moved from Sydney to Perth earlier this year, but proved he is back to top form when he finished third in the prestigious 20 Beaches race two weeks ago. In a race against what was described as an “all star lineup”, the former junior world champion ended up just over a minute behind probably the world’s top surfski paddler at the moment, Cory Hill.
The South African paddlers will know Jones well after he finished third senior and fifth overall in the 2023 World Championships, when the only South African to beat the 24 year old was McGregor.
Jones will be racing the singles race at the Biogen Pete Marlin and teaming up with Keeling for the doubles event.
“I’m really looking forward to (the Pete Marlin) and the 20 Beaches was a really good set-up for that,” said Jones after completing the event in Sydney. “I’ve been following the Pete Marlin for the past few years. Having not raced internationally for a while, I thought this competition would be a great opportunity to race against all the South African guys”.
“This year I moved across Australia to start a new life in Perth. Before the move, I took two months off paddling and went to Europe. Having only started paddling properly again in mid August, the World Championships in Portugal were not on my to-do list as I didn’t have time to prepare for them. Now, having been back on the boat for just under three months, I am feeling great and ready to get stuck into some racing”.
“Racing against the South African guys is always a challenge. The quality of paddlers in the country is absolutely sensational. Having not raced the guys since the World Championships last year in Perth, I am excited to see where I am at. Despite having little experience racing in South Africa, a top-three finish in the singles and doubles race would be an awesome result,” added Jones.
