{"id":264655,"date":"2025-06-30T21:15:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/weslander\/?p=264655"},"modified":"2025-06-30T21:15:42","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T19:15:42","slug":"theultimatecanoerace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/weslander\/theultimatecanoerace\/","title":{"rendered":"#TheUltimateCanoeRace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<p>With an official hashtag of #TheUltimateCanoeRace, the 240\u2009km Berg River Canoe Marathon is one of those rare events that lives up to its marketing hype. This year the four-day race through the beautiful Western Cape farmlands from Paarl to Velddrif will take place on July 2-5.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event is the ultimate test of canoeing ability and deserves its place as one of South Africa&#8217;s major paddling events. Participants can rely on the fact they will be tested from start to finish, and entrants know that to simply finish the four-day epic, they will need to call on a full range of canoeing skills and mental determination.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The list of winners from the previous 62 Berg River Canoe Marathons reads like a who&#8217;s who of elite South African canoeing: World Champions Hank McGregor, Andy Birkett and Adri\u00e1n Boros, are mixed in with South Africans who have dominated locally and internationally.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGregor says he is &#8220;super excited&#8221; for the 2025 delivery of the annual event and will be heading down earlier to scout the river as conditions are looking &#8220;tough&#8221;. Speaking on the predicted weather conditions, McGregor says &#8220;that&#8217;s what the Berg is all about; tough, hard conditions, 240\u2009km of paddling \u2013 Paarl to Velddrif \u2013 it is one of those bucket list events. It is probably, if not, the toughest canoe marathon in the world,&#8221; he says, adding that this will be his 17th Berg. I&#8217;m hoping for a good, clean race. I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;m going to make mistakes, just hopefully I&#8217;ll be strong enough to counter them.&#8221; \r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The undisputed King of the Berg is surely McGregor with 13 wins. The 47- year-old will this year, once again, be hoping to regain the title he first won in 2000 as a 22-year-old, and last won in 2023 when he became the race&#8217;s oldest winner. The Queens of the Berg, who jointly share their crown, are Marinda Hartzenberg and Jean Cole with seven wins apiece.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This years race will see 10 former champions on the start line with a combined total of 32 race wins. McGregor and last year&#8217;s runner up, Robbie Herreveld, lead the way with 13 and six wins respectively, while the top champions in the women&#8217;s race are Bianca Beavitt and Jenna Nisbet (Ward) with three and two titles respectively.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The list of paddlers who have not been able to complete this gruelling event is long, and their stories are littered with tales of long distances; tricky swirling river conditions; icy cold weather; howling headwinds; dangerous tree blocks; and treacherous weirs.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, those hardships also mean the finishers medal is highly valued by those who do complete the arduous four-day journey \u2013 and also means Jannie Malherbe, with an incredible 51 race finishes (including three race wins), is regarded as something of a legend in canoeing folklore. Leading the way among the women finishers is Lisa Scott, who is this year aiming for her 15th Berg medal.\r<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tough nature of the event is in stark contrast to the beautiful Western Cape farmlands. The Berg River carves a path as it meanders from Paarl, through the Drakenstein, Swartland and Bergrivier regions, until paddlers emerge 240\u2009km downstream in Velddrif and are rewarded with their precious finishers medal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/weslander\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BergMarathonDay2_67527.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>dummy text<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/weslander\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BergMarathonDay3_44533.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>dummy text<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/weslander\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BergMarathonDay4_10130.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>dummy text<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/weslander\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/BergMarathonDay1_97279-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><figcaption>dummy text<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Berg River Canoe Marathon tests canoeists&#8217; skills over 240\u2009km from Paarl to 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set of on Day 1 of 2023 Berg River Canoe Marathon. 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Photo: John Hishin | Drumbeat Photography Gameplan Media.","article_media_icon":"1","article_template":"news","author_byline":"","background_color":"","block_editor":"1","byline":"","cmplz_hide_cookiebanner":"","competition_end_date":"","contact_advertise_email":"","contact_advertise_phone":"","contact_editorial_email":"","contact_general_email":"","contact_general_phone":"","contact_office_hours":"","contact_physical_address":"","enabled":"","featured_image_custom_caption":"","featured_video_url":"","fields":"","font_body":"","font_header":"","frequency":"","headline":"#TheUltimateCanoeRace","hide_border":"","icon":"","is_wp_suggestion":"","issuu_download_url":"","issuu_embed_url":"","language_version_url":"","large_border":"","name":"","nm_contact_name":"","nm_contact_number":"","nm_date_lost":"","no_overlay_background":"","node-url":"","obituary_born_date":"","obituary_died_date":"","obituary_memoriam_text":"","origin":"","overlay_color":"","overlay_opacity":"","overlay_size":"","placement":"","plural_label":"","post_author":"","post_id":"","post_language":"en","secret-key":"","sponsored_utm_campaign":"","sponsored_utm_content":"","sponsored_utm_medium":"","sponsored_utm_source":"","sponsored_utm_term":"","start_date":"","utm_suppression":"","video_embed_url":"","wp_pattern_sync_status":"","data_version":[],"enclosure":[],"pongrass_image":["MS kanomarathon_P1","MS kanomarathon_P2","MS kanomarathon_P3","MS kanomarathon_P4","MS kanomarathon_P5"],"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"scaip_prevent_shortcode_addition":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[8487,8489,8490],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"publication":[],"class_list":["post-264655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-berg","tag-canoe","tag-marathon"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>#TheUltimateCanoeRace | Weslander<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore the beauty and excitement of Berg. 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