Pete Marlin 2026 S2 results: Joshua Fenn and Ulvard Hart win the doubles, Jade Wilson completes a championship double

Published

2026-11-02T12:45:47+00:00

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PaddleStats

Full competition results: Pete Marlin and South African S1/S2 Ocean Racing Championships 2026

Joshua Fenn and Ulvard Hart won the doubles race at the 2026 Pete Marlin and South African S1/S2 Ocean Racing Championships in East London on Sunday, 1 November. They covered the 22 km course from Orient Beach to Yellow Sands in 1:14:17. Jade Wilson and Saskia Hockly won the women's race in 1:27:22, giving Wilson her second national title of the weekend. Across both days, the results database recorded 371 boat entries in 50 categories.

Fenn and Hart claim the South African doubles title

Sunday's S2 race doubled as the South African doubles championships. The organisers reported good downwind conditions, with Fenn and Hart taking control soon after the start. The U23 pairing of Luke Le Roux and Matthew Rory Coetzer finished second overall, 50 seconds behind, ahead of defending Pete Marlin doubles winners Matthew Fenn and Andy Birkett. The database lists 124 entries across 27 doubles categories, covering juniors, U23s, seniors and masters. The oldest category was men's masters 150–159, based on the paddlers' combined age.

Fastest crews of the 2026 Pete Marlin doubles

Levi Mayes and Holly Smith were the fastest mixed crew, finishing eighth among all 119 finishers in 1:20:07. Juniors Liam Stephenson and Madison Fourie were the second mixed crew home in 1:29:06. Connan Gates and Angie Austin took third in 1:31:47, just one second ahead of Reef Funston and Catrin Schmidt. Full results are available on the Pete Marlin 2026 hub, including the combined age-group standings for men, women and mixed crews.

Hart bounces back as the Fenn brothers race in rival boats

A Sunday win after a difficult singles race

Hart arrived in East London a week after winning K1 silver at the Canoe Marathon World Championships in Gualeguaychú, with the organisers tipping him as the singles favourite. Instead, he finished 12th on Saturday in 1:38:37, 9:16 behind Notten. Speaking after the doubles, he said he had felt short of freshness from the start and faded badly around the 17 km mark. On Sunday, he sat behind Fenn, concentrating on maintaining their rhythm and power while keeping his partner informed about the other boats.

Fenn, fifth in Saturday's singles, said the pair made their move early. They started alone on the left, joined the main group before the turning buoy, then accelerated clear. It was another home victory for Fenn, who had already won the men's Pete Marlin doubles with Hank McGregor, including in 2021 and 2024. In 2025, he won the mixed race with Holly Smith. Three weeks before this year's event, he and his brother claimed the SS2 world title in La Vila Joiosa. This time they were in rival boats, with Matthew Fenn and Birkett finishing 1:06 behind the winners.

Matthew Fenn and Birkett were unable to repeat their 2025 victory, when they covered the 17 km course from Nahoon Beach to Yellow Sands in 1:00:30. This year's longer route began at Orient Beach, so the winning times cannot be compared directly. All 12 crews in the men's senior category finished. Joshua Fenn and Hart won ahead of Matthew Fenn and Birkett, with Rice and Notten third, 2:56 back. Tyde Malherbe and Phillip Smith placed fourth in the category in 1:17:48.

Rice and Notten, the defending national S2 champions from the 2025 Prescient Freedom Paddle, finished fifth overall in 1:17:13. Notten had won the singles for the fourth time on Saturday, beating Rice by 19 seconds, but together they were unable to retain their doubles title.

U23 crews finish second and fourth overall

Le Roux and Coetzer covered the course in 1:15:07, finishing 50 seconds behind Joshua Fenn and Hart and 16 seconds ahead of Matthew Fenn and Birkett. The Peninsula Canoe Club pair improved on their individual placings from Saturday, when Coetzer was eighth and Le Roux tenth. Their second place overall also secured the men's U23 win by 27 seconds.

Ryley Smith and Matthew Coetzer were second in U23 and fourth overall in 1:15:34. Coetzer is a different paddler from Matthew Rory, who partnered Le Roux. Smith, born in 2008, had won Saturday's boys' U18 singles in 1:42:35. In the doubles, he and Coetzer finished 1:17 behind the winners and 1:39 ahead of Rice and Notten. Four crews contested U23. The other two — Luke O'Connor with Thomas Junger, and Kwanele Banda with Ty Haynes — finished more than 11 minutes behind the category winners.

Mayes followed his men's U23 singles win by teaming up with Holly Smith, the U23 mixed SS2 world champion. They finished 8:59 ahead of the next mixed crew, with only seven men's doubles ahead of them overall. Mayes and Smith won the mixed U23 category, Stephenson and Fourie won the junior category, and Gates and Austin took the masters 80–89 category. These are age-group results; the overall mixed finishing order is listed above.

Wilson's fourth doubles win in a row

Wilson has now won the Pete Marlin doubles four years in a row: with Nix Birkett in 2023 and 2024, Kira Bester in 2025, and Hockly in 2026. Combined with Saturday's singles win, that gave her two national titles a week after her K2 bronze at the Marathon World Championships. Speaking to the organisers, Wilson credited Hockly's steering from the front seat and said she had focused on matching her partner's rhythm and movements. Even in favourable downwind conditions, catching some of the waves required hard work.

Hockly, the 2022 Pete Marlin singles winner, had won Saturday's women's U23 race in 1:53:04. On Sunday, she and Wilson finished 16th among the 119 crews with a finishing time. They topped the women's senior category by 8:30 from Gous and Bunnett. Bunnett, the third woman home in Saturday's singles, raced as an international paddler alongside Gous of Eastern Cape Virtual Club. The category results therefore include crews with international partners and should not be read as a national championship medal list.

Mikaila Brown and Madison Alberts finished third among the women in 1:40:42 to win the U23 category. Brown had placed third in Saturday's U23 singles. Kirstin Scott and Janine Linder won the women's masters 100–109 category in 1:44:55, adding to Scott's 40–44 singles win the day before. Seven women's doubles categories were contested, five with only one crew entered.

The weekend in numbers: 371 entries across 50 categories

Saturday's singles, covered in the S1 recap, had 247 entries across 23 categories in the database. Of those, 215 have a finishing time, 19 are marked DNS and six DNF. A further seven entries have neither a time nor a placing, so they cannot be counted as confirmed finishers. Sunday's 27 categories added 124 entries: 119 finishers, four non-starters and one DNF. That gives 371 boat entries and 334 recorded finishing times across the weekend. These are race entries, not unique participants, as some paddlers competed on both days. The largest doubles category was men's masters 100–109, in which all 19 crews finished. Zoog Haynes and Jacques Theron won in 1:24:19, placing tenth overall.

Winners of the 27 doubles categories in the PaddleStats results

Masters doubles age bands refer to the combined age of both paddlers: 150–159 is a crew total, not an individual age. The table above lists category winners from the database, including crews with international paddlers, and is not an official list of South African title winners. Several winning boats brought together athletes from different clubs. Counting each club represented in a winning crew, Peninsula Canoe Club and Fish Hoek Beach Sports Club had five wins apiece; Border, Blue Water, Dolphin Coast and Durban Undersea Club each had four. Border had the largest doubles entry, with 39 paddlers.

The Fenn brothers ended the weekend with first and third places in the doubles, having finished fourth and fifth in the singles. Notten won the singles and placed fifth in the doubles. Wilson won both women's races, Hockly added the doubles victory to her U23 singles win, and Mayes won both men's U23 singles and mixed U23 doubles. Hank McGregor, third in Saturday's singles at 48, does not appear in the doubles results.

What's next

One of the next major events on South Africa's surfski calendar is the 2026 Cape Point Challenge in Cape Town on 19 December, with 20 December as the reserve date. The next ICF Canoe Ocean Racing World Championships are scheduled for 30 September to 3 October 2027 in Tahiti. The Fenn brothers are the reigning SS2 world champions, but the East London results also showed the strength of their domestic rivals: the top four crews finished within 1:17, and two of them were U23 boats.

Hart's doubles victory came eight days after his marathon silver in Argentina. Wilson rounded off a run of events on three continents: fourth in SS1 and silver in mixed SS2 at the Ocean Racing Worlds in La Vila Joiosa, K2 bronze in Gualeguaychú, and two national titles in East London.

Frequently asked questions

Who won the Pete Marlin doubles in 2026?

Joshua Fenn and Ulvard Hart won the men's S2 in 1:14:17, 50 seconds ahead of Luke Le Roux and Matthew Rory Coetzer, with Matthew Fenn and Andy Birkett third in 1:15:23. Jade Wilson and Saskia Hockly won the women's race in 1:27:22, and Levi Mayes and Holly Smith were the fastest mixed crew in 1:20:07.

What was the course for the 2026 Pete Marlin doubles?

The doubles ran 22 km from Orient Beach in East London to Yellow Sands, the reverse of Saturday's singles course. The organisers reported good downwind conditions.

How many crews entered the Pete Marlin doubles?

The database lists 124 entries, of which 119 finished. Results are divided into 27 categories: 12 men's, seven women's and eight mixed. Men's masters 100–109 had the largest entry, with 19 crews.

Did Jade Wilson win both South African titles?

Yes. Wilson won the women's S1 on Saturday in 1:46:50 and the women's S2 with Saskia Hockly on Sunday in 1:27:22. It was also her fourth consecutive Pete Marlin doubles victory, after wins in 2023, 2024 and 2025 with different partners.

How did last year's winners and the title holders fare?

Matthew Fenn and Andy Birkett, the 2025 Pete Marlin doubles winners, finished third, 1:06 behind Joshua Fenn and Ulvard Hart. Kenny Rice and Nicholas Notten, the national S2 champions from the 2025 Freedom Paddle, were fifth overall and third in the senior class, 2:56 back.

How did the U23 crews perform?

Luke Le Roux and Matthew Rory Coetzer finished second overall in 1:15:07, while Ryley Smith and Matthew Coetzer were fourth in 1:15:34. Both crews beat defending national champions Rice and Notten, who finished in 1:17:13. Smith, born in 2008, had raced in boys' U18 in Saturday's singles.

How did Hart explain his difficult singles race?

Hart finished 12th overall and sixth in the senior category in 1:38:37, 9:16 behind Notten. He told the organisers he had felt short of freshness from the start and faded around the 17 km mark. He felt better during Sunday's warm-up and went on to win the doubles with Fenn.

How many entries were recorded across the weekend?

The database lists 371 boat entries: 247 singles across 23 categories and 124 doubles across 27 categories. There are 334 recorded finishing times. Seven additional singles entries have neither a time nor a placing and remain unresolved. Entries should not be confused with confirmed starters or the number of individual participants.

Ulvard Hart left East London with the national doubles title, while Wilson completed a sweep of the women's races. The season continues with events including December's Cape Point Challenge 2026, before the international focus turns to the World Championships in Tahiti in 2027.

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