Toti star Michelle Eder got her challenge for the Varsity College Marine Surfski Series title underway by winning the Hansa Surfski Challenge womens title on Friday night.
by 05 February 2010
HANK McGregor and Amanzimtoti star Michelle Eder took top honours in the Hansa Surfski Challenge on Friday evening.
McGregor won a thrilling three boat sprint to the finish and in doing so rocketed himself to the joint top of the standings in the Varsity College Marine Surfski Series. Racing in ideal, flat, glassy conditions under overcast skies, McGregor quickly broke away with the winner of the last series race Matt Bouman and U23 marathon world champ Grant van der Walt. The trio were locked together as they ended the second lap of the race, setting up a sprint to the finish at the last turning buoy off uShaka beach. McGregor put the hammer down to edge out Bouman, with series defending champ Van der Walt having to settle for third at the end of a fiercely contested race.
Eder, a student at Varsity College, was in a class of her own as she romped to a comprehensive victory in the women’s race. The tenacious 24-year-old Toti resident has been a consistent force to be reckoned with in the KwaZulu-Natal Surfski scene in recent years, and after missing the summer series pipe-opener a fortnight ago, she immediately made her mark and closed the overall ranking head start of women´s leader Donna Winter. Winter had to be content with second place with teenager Jenna Ward rounding off the top three.
In the doubles race, the perennial pacesetters Herman Chalupsky and Andre Pohl consolidated their position at the top of the series standings with another emphatic victory, cruising home almost a full minute clear of the crew of Matthew Collin and Quinton Rutherford.
The third race of the Varsity College Marine Surf Ski Series, The Sunday Tribune Surfski Challenge takes place next Friday evening 12 February at 5:30 from Ushaka Beach.
HANK McGregor finally got the monkey off his back when he powered to victory in the Global Trader Drak Challenge canoe marathon, the only major river marathon that he had never won, when he came out tops in a thrilling three boat dice on the 38km final stage on Sunday.
AMANZIMTOTIS Michelle Eder managed to maintain her title as Discovery Sunglass Hut Surfski Womens Series leader by taking home her sixth win when she clinched the KwaZulu Downwind to Toti in testing surf conditions on Sunday.
TOTI starlet Michelle Eder clocked up yet another win in the 2010 Discovery Sunglass Hut Surfski Series with victory in the Island Tribe Scottburgh Surf Classic which formed part of the Scottburgh Winters Solstice Festival over the weekend.
AMANZIMTOTI standout Michelle Eder, widely known as the lady to beat in the current Discovery Sunglass Hut Surfski Series, took home her seventh win at the Hansa 5 Beaches over the weekend.
AFTER two weekends on the middle to Upper Couth Coast, Surfski racing, currently epitomised by the Discovery Men´s Health surf ski series, returns to Durban this coming weekend.
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