DURBAN – Team Euro Steel’s Saskia Hockly will be hoping her victory in the world’s oldest surfski race on Sunday will be the pre-cursor to even more glory at this weekend’s ICF Canoe Ocean Racing Word Championships – but she faces a much sterner test at the weekend.
With the routes and days of the Championship events within the three-day race window still to be finalised, Hockly can take some confidence from Sunday’s two-minute victory in the Pirates-Umhlanga-Pirates race over Frenchwoman Thaïs Delrieux, with her Euro Steel team-mate Pippa McGregor finishing third.
While Hockly will be bouyed by the win, she knows that she faces a massive task to repeat the overall win against a field loaded with overseas stars and packed with a strong local contingent looking for a home victory.
However, the young 21-year-old has made a habit of collecting medals at World Championships, including the junior Ocean Racing title in 2021 in Lanzarote, Spain. Hockly followed that up with silver and bronze medals at Marathon and Ocean Racing World Championships in junior, U23 or senior races almost every year since then.
For the past two years’ Hockly has finished third U23 at the Ocean Racing World Champs, both times behind compatriot Kira Bester and American Katriana Swetish. Bester has moved up to the senior ranks while Swetish has not entered, making Hockly the overwhelming favourite to take the U23 title this weekend.
Her biggest challenge in the U23 class could come from within her own team, with East London’s Jade Wilson a definite contender and Georgia Singe a definite rival as she steps up to the category after winning the junior title last year and also claiming the mixed doubles championship with Uli Hart.
Hockly, Wilson and Singe could claim a 1-2-3 in the U23 class, but all three will also harbour ambitions of matching Bester’s 2024 heroics, where she won the event overall as well as the U23 gold medal. In the senior race the favourites are probably last year’s champion Bester; the 2021 gold medal winner Michelle Burn from Durban, who knows the local surf conditions better than any other women in the field; and 2019 winner Dani Richards from New Zealand.
Other South Africans sure to be in the mix include the Team Euro Steel trio of Jenna Nisbett, Pippa McGregor and Nix Birkett, while Cape Town’s Melanie van Niekerk will be hoping for some big surf conditions to boost her chances.
The race window is Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the singles race aiming for the best predicted downwind conditions, with the mixed doubles championship race and other supporting events fitting around that. A decision on courses and days is likely to be made on Wednesday morning, depending on weather predictions.