When you're at the top, the fear of falling can be quite a motivator.

That's the position Australia's Jamie Mitchell is in as he attempts to win his sixth consecutive QuiksilverEdition Moloka'i to O'ahu Paddleboard Race Sunday.

The 32-mile race across the Kaiwi Channel is considered the world championship of long-distance paddleboard racing.

"There's really only one way for me to go now, and that's backwards," Mitchell, 30, said. "That definitely makes it hard for me. But at the same time, it is good motivation for me to train harder and try to get better every year so that I can stay ahead."

In truth, the rest of the field has a long way to go.

Mitchell won last year's race by 17 minutes, 12 seconds — a record for largest time difference between first and second place.

While completing his training in Hawai'i over the past month, Mitchell has won three races, all by significant margins.

"People might think it's been easy victories, but they really haven't been," he said. "And the Moloka'i race truly is unpredictable. No matter how good you're feeling, how hard you've trained, the channel can still throw something at you that you weren't expecting that day."

Mitchell's primary competition Sunday could come from fellow Australian, Bruce Taylor.

"He's very fast, and he's the one guy I haven't really raced against in a distance race," Mitchell said. "He's very fast, and I think he should be up front."

The top Hawai'i entries are brothers Brian and Marc Rocheleau from Hawai'i Kai. They have been training together for the past year in preparation for Sunday's race.

"We have some good training runs — some good battles," Brian said. "He wants to beat me and I don't want him to beat me, so we push each other."

Brian, 31, finished runner-up in 2003 and '05, and is the only competitor who has come close to Mitchell's times in the past five years.

"Anything can happen in this race, but (Mitchell) is really fast," Brian said. "I can't concern myself with him. I just have to focus on myself and hope to have a good race and see where that stands."

Marc, 26, placed second to Mitchell at a race off Maui last week.

"When we started training together, he was slower," Brian said of his younger brother. "But all of a sudden, he started flying and we're right next to each other most days now."

The top competitors will enter the open division, which is for paddleboards of any length (most range between 15 and 18 feet).

The stock division is for identical 12-foot paddleboards. Leading contenders in the stock division include Hawai'i competitors Kai Hall and Keoni Watson.

There will also be a division for stand-up paddleboards. In that division, competitors stand on the board and use a canoe-type paddle to stroke.

DUNCAN AIMS FOR SIXTH WOMEN'S VICTORY

Honolulu's Kanesa Duncan and Australia's Shakira Westdorp are considered the top contenders in the women's open division.

Duncan, 31, has won the women's title at the Moloka'i race five times, including the last three. Westdorp, 22, is entering for the first time.

"It's good to have her here because I think it will make me push harder," Duncan said. "But this race is so long, it still is a lot about you and how you deal with things yourself."

Westdorp, who is a big-wave surfer, beat Duncan at a race off Maui last week.

"Just to finish would be the ultimate for me since this is my first try," she said. "But if I could be the first female in, that would be even better."

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.