The Molokai World Championship race this year has one of the strongest line-ups ever.  But who can offer the on-form South Africans a challenge?

We spoke to some of the Aussie and Hawaiian paddlers who will be giving the Saffas a run for their money.

One of the strongest South African squads ever is about to head for Hawaii to take part in this year's Molokai Challenge. 

We caught up with some of the paddlers and asked them how their training was going.

The 2007 Molokai Challenge takes place in a month's time on May 20th.  We went through the previous winners lists and found some interesting facts & figures.

NB: Although the organisers flirted with the idea of waiving the escort boat restrictions, on reflection (and advice from the US Coast Guard), the escort boats have once again been made mandatory.

The Epic website says that the skis were built with "super-lightweight unidirectional carbon pre-preg combined with Nomex honeycomb, with a very thin, clear gel coat". The result? An 8kg V10. There are two of the boats in existence with a single V10L which, according to Oscar Chalupsky, is close to 7.5kg.

When you think of the history of Molokai, the unofficial World Championship of open-ocean racing, you think of Oscar (11) and Herman Chalupsky (2), the brothers from Durban who have combined to win 13 titles, and Australians Dean Gardiner (9) and Grant Kenny (5). The only other man to have won this storied race in the last two decades is the young Springbok Clint Pretorius, who last year edged out Oscar and two-time Olympic medal winner Clint Robinson of Oz.

[Editor: Itsuko Oda, the first Japanese woman to race Molokai sent us this personal race report following her marathon seven hour effort. Congratulations Itsuko!]

First of all, I would like to thank all the people who helped me make my long held dream of Molokai solo crossing come true.  I feel I would never have succeeded without their help and support.

Post race relief! (Pic: Itsuko Oda)

Australian Olympian Clint Robinson (37) won his first Molokai Challenge yesterday in a time of 3:23:02, just 96 seconds outside of Dean Gardiner’s record set in 1997.