There is a big weekend of racing coming up in Hong Kong for the Surfski Worlds! The depth in both the Men's and Women's is super deep and the Vaikobi Race Team will be right amongst it and will be ripping in!
The Women's World Title Race will see one of the most competitive fields ever with numerous contenders who can legitimately lay a claim on taking out the Womens Title.
From the V Race Team, Molokai Champ Rachel Clarke from New Zealand and Hayley Nixon from South Africa will be at the pointy end of the field on the home straight and we will be super excited to see these two legends charge home to the finish.
The Pocket Rocket from France, Angie Le Roux will be looking to surprise and on her day will be contending for the title win.
Spain's Chloe Bunnett will also be looking to achieve her best result at the World Champs to date.
Headlining the V-Team in the Men's field, is 2013 World Champ, Sean Rice who has been in tip top form of late with a number of big wins this year including the Molokai World Championship.
Off the back of his big wedding day last Sunday to the stunning bride Emily McGrath, Sean will be on cloud nine this weekend and will be there when it counts....He just has to deal with his pesky younger brother, Kenny first!
Mackenzie "Macca" Hynard will be defending his World U/23 crown in HK and has strategically peaked at the right time. Macca knows when to light it up and will leave nothing in the tank.
Austin Kieffer will be looking to achieve the strongest result for an American at the Surfski Worlds as he continues to progress up the World Rankings. His compatriot, Tim Burdiak will be competing at his first World Champs in the distance format which will be quite different compared to his World Surfski title in Surf Life Saving achieved last year in the Netherlands.
There is a strong contingent from Spain featuring the ever green Esteban Medina who shows no sign of slowing down in his new fatherhood stage of life! The big man, Dani Sanchez Viloria the Policeman from Ebiza, is also in tip top form of late and will put in a strong showing as will our U/23 contender Ignachio Soler Fabre (AKA Nacho)
The French legend, Benoit Le Roux is excited about being in HK with his Okrea Surfski's which he custom builds in France. Benoit is no stranger to the big races and will feel right at home in HK.
The Big Kiwi Sammy Mayhew has been training the house down and is looking for his best ever result at the Worlds and the International Surf and Paddle sport superstar from the Sunshine Coast, Ryan Taj Paroz (AKA Rye Burger) will be looking to perform strongly.
Go well V-Team. We know you have got this!
Also a big shout out to the Australian Team who we are proud to support. There is plenty of talent coming from Australia this year and we are super excited to see them race hard in HK!
How to follow the action?
Unfortunately at this stage, information about the event on the official ICF Ocean Racing World webpage is pretty much non existent.
The good news however is that our friend Bruce Seymour from Hong Kong Paddler is on the ground and will help us all stay connected with what is going on. Follow his Facebook Page at Hong Kong Dragon Run 2017 for all the live updates and feeds.
The Womens Race will be raced in the morning of Saturday Nov 18th
Live Feed link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=0UKmKRlVd-E
The Men's race on Sunday Nov 19th.
Live Feed link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=rrbNMtzFIAU
