20 October 2004

South African paddler Ant Stott has re-affirmed his position at the pinnacle of marathon river racing, completely outclassing a competitive field in the 2004 Matelec Lowveld Croc, which took place over the weekend.

Stott made easy work of the technically and physically challenging two-day course as he weaved his way down the low river to claim the prestigious title for the third time in four years, entrenching himself as "King of the Croc".

"I had a really great second day", Stott said after wrapping up his lop-sided victory. "I was able to extend my lead over Deon and Clint to just over 14 minutes, which I'm very, very happy about."

'In a league of his own'
"He went brilliantly", said Graham Bird, a previous Lowveld Croc champion, who this year finished up in the top 10. "He's in a league of his own on any South African river and has been for the last year or two.

"He did the same thing last year with a massive 10-minute lead", Bird said. "I don't know what he does. Maybe he has a sneaky portage somewhere on that river!"

Stott has been cruising on a solid wave of success this year and has added a number of trophies, both locally and abroad, to his mantelpiece, including a recent victory in the Hansa Powerade Fish River Canoe Marathon.

In fact, it was his K2 partner from the Fish, Deon Bruss, who had to switch positions and stare at Stott's back for the duration of the race as he fruitlessly gave chase for the two days to finally finish in a credible second place.

Time-trial format
What makes racing the Lowveld Croc so challenging is that it's the only South African river raced in time-trial format, with the paddlers setting off individually and divided by a reasonable time split.

Day one saw the paddlers starting at the weir just below Kwena Dam in Mpumalanga. They charged their way through a number of grade-A obstacles over the gruelling 33km course before coming to rest at Weltevreden Bridge, six kilometres short of the normal overnight stop.

Encountering hippos or crocodiles is always a real danger on the Crocodile River, and this year the organisers shortened the first leg and raced the same section on day two to avoid that threat.

Flawless
Stott was the first to be unleashed on the river on day one. He never saw another paddler for the entire event as he flawlessly glided down the 57 kilometre course.

The power and fervour with which Stott attacked the river paid dividends as he built a lead of four minutes 37 seconds over his closest rival Deon Bruss by the end of day one.

With a slight overnight increase in the water level, thanks to a release from the irrigation board upriver, the day two leg became somewhat easier than the previous day's shallow racing, which had been run on only 5.5 cumecs of water.

Stott fired from the start and left no room for doubt in spectators' minds that he was on his way to victory. He eventually added a further nine minutes 41 seconds onto his overnight lead to amass a 14-minute overall winning margin.

Fiercely contested
Second and third places were fiercely contested on day two as under-21 Durban star Clinton Pretorius stormed his way from fifth overnight to within snapping distance of Deon Bruss, who just managed to hold off his younger adversary.

In a similar race to Stott, Carol Joyce was untouchable in the women's field as she led from the start and didn't look back. Junior paddler Kirsty van der Merwe, earned herself a well-deserved second place, finshing ahead of last year's women's winner Jeannette Walder.

David Gerber won the junior category ahead of Grant van der Walt and Robert Crichton.

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