Ant Stott's Weblog

Hank K1 World Champion while we get a DNF…

antstott — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:48:37 +0000

I very impressive race on Saturday saw Hank McGregor win the mens K1 world title. Shaun Rubenstein raced a great race to come in 4th, very close behind. Today Mike Mbanjwa and Eric Zondi had a brilliant K2 race to finish 10th in the World!

This morning saw the racing of the mens K2 marathon where Graeme Solomon and I got to test ourselves. With the extreme heat and humidity the plan was to stay out of the ‘red’ zone as much as possible. Wise words from Shaun Ruby advised us not to let our heart rates get too high early on as it will a struggle to get them back down in the heat. After watching the K1 race the day before we saw how the guys were struggling in the last few laps.
After a decent start we were comfortably on the back of the front bunch of about 7 boats just trying to stay out of trouble. When there were some hard burns towards the end of the 1st lap we decided not to kill ourselves to stay with the group as we would under normal circumstances. We kept calm and controlled, settling into a 2nd group of 4 boats sitting not too far behind the front group watching them as they jostled for positions. At the 2nd portage we were 24sec off the leaders when we saw one of the top Spanish crews in the front swerve off the course with a broken rudder. The Hungarian boat dropped off the front leaving only 3 boats on the front group. Our chasing group then shuffled into a new group of 4, things were looking great.
Our bunch started to get pretty close to the leaders but we decided it was not ideal just yet to catch the leaders as it would result in a bunch of 7 boats too early on. We would keep calm and slowly over the course of the race work our way up to the leaders hoping for some of the other boats in our group to tire slightly so as to pose less of a threat at the end. Just before the 3rd portage I noticed the rudder was not working too well so asked Graeme to take a look at it at the put-in of the 3rd portage. After a quick look he said it was fine and we pushed on. A kilometer and a half later after we rounded one of the turns and then needed to straighten out again the boat just kept turning, way off track… I had no control of the rudder yet again! Can you believe it! 2 years in a row the same problem!! Unheard of!!!
Just at the point were all was setting up perfectly, we were both still feeling so fresh, saving our bodies for the second half of the race. We paddled to the bank got out and could not find the cause of the steering problem… We tried once more to get going again but I could not control the boat no matter how hard I tried… We went to the bank again, this time we opened the rudder cap at the back and looked inside the boat, the steering system had once again pulled off the sides of the boat leaving the rudder useless. With no way to even continue as the boat could not even go in a straight line… We were sadly forced to withdraw… Heart breaking stuff as my whole reason for training so hard and coming back to worlds this year was to make up for our misfortune of last years worlds…

Our attempt at World Champs race coverage

antstott — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:48:07 +0000

Live Streaming possibility? I got a mail from the organizers this morning saying that they are still working on the live streaming and it could be up on the official site by the time we start. Hold thumbs!

Due to the serious lack of any form of race coverage it seems we will be forced to follow the race on Twitter.

Maybe I will even ask Shaun to log onto my Twitter account @AntStott to give K2 race updates which will then also come up on the right margin of this blog , if not then you will just need to follow @ShaunRuby.

I have kindly asked Shaun to give twitter updates for our race which starts at 5am SA time on Sunday morning also using @ShaunRuby on twitter.

If you are not on twitter you can go onto Shaun’s website, if you scroll down sightly you will see the tweets popping up on the left hand side just below the calendar. Unfortunately this does not seem to be working on Shaun”s site…
You will also eventually have some luck on the ICF latest news page.

Shaun’s website twitter seems to be a bit unreliable… But this should work- If you don’t have twitter you will need to go to twitter.com Sign yourself up, and then once registered do a search in the twitter search bar for @ShaunRuby and then click on follow him.

Singapore World Champs update

antstott — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:26:18 +0000

The South African masters have piled on the medals over their past 2 days of racing showing us just how it’s done. Click here to see the ICF report on how the masters have done or you can check for updates on the ICF facebook page. Basically the coverage of this years event seems to be pretty poor and it will be difficult for anyone for to follow the senior races live… Maybe we can organize some sms updates sent out via the guys who run the SA Kayak e-mails or on twitter through @Kayakmedia? I am sure that can come together, but sorry guys, no live streaming this year…

Our new K2 (Nelo Quattro) is perfectly set up and feeling race ready. We did a very hard session in the heat today with the other SA K2 crew of Mike Mbanjwa/Eric Zondi who seem to going well and I predict a good result from them as I feel they will do well in the heat. Our K2 is still feeling solid. We got a glimpse of the top Spanish crews today, current World champs Bouzan/Fuiza, and multiple world champion Mercahn with his new partner. There are a few other potent crews here so the race is going to be insane! The heat will surely play a factor but I am not quite sure how just yet, it’s difficult to picture the race not being fast off the start? I predict the pace will be really fast but then you will get some crews paying the price later on and dropping off the pace. another major factor is the thunder storms which we have had every afternoon… After 9 deaths in Singapore from lightening just this years the organizers have been pulling us off the water to safety every time one passes by. If this happens during the race things could get interesting… no result or pace car/boat after the re-start like in F1 racing?

World Champs – Singapore

antstott — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:05:12 +0000

This is just a quick little update to tell you all that the SA team arrived in Singapore safely. All of our athletes are ready to give it their all in the realistic hope if bringing home some medals.
Graeme and I are racing in the new Nelo Quattro which really seems to be suiting us better than any other boat we have paddled! For those who are a little nervous about our steering breaking again, not to worry! Nelo has come up with a fantastic very safe system which is bound to be problem free.
The course is spectacular, the water is a bit lumpy from a few of the tourist boats but our K2 still seems to be slicing through the water without ever missing a stroke.
I must say that it is very hot and humid here and some of the Europeans seem to be struggling a bit, as for the Durban guys, we are loving the heat!
The masters start with their racing tomorrow. Shaun and Hank race their K1 race on Saturday at 3pm (11am SA time). Our race is at 11am (5am SA time) on Sunday.
At this stage I am not sure of how we can keep you updated on racing but hope to figure a way as the week progresses. The pathetic official race website is here. The most informative thing I can find so far is here.
Below is a picture of the city bowl we are racing in along with the jetty for the end of the portage.

Link to the Singapore weather forecast by Windguru.

Breede River Marathon

antstott — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:37:15 +0000

Expecting low rivers it was great to see some of the Breede Rivers tributaries carrying good water the afternoon before the race.
For the start of day 1 near Robertson the river was flowing at a medium-low level but a lot fuller than what we had for the warm up race 2 weeks earlier. Off the line there were 4 boats away forming the front bunch which ended up sprinting it out for the stage. Graeme and I had a strong finish holding off the challengers of King/Schloms, Bohm/Glass, Rabie/Birkette.

On day 2 the river was up by half a meter and as the front 4 boats went off in elapsed time we knew we were in for an exciting day. With about 600m to go all 4 boats were still together. Rabie/Birkette with the pull, us on the left wave, King/Schloms on the right wave and Bohm/Glass on the diamond.
The afternoon after day one we had come down and spent over an hour checking out the channels before the finish. On a low river only the left channel is open but this is a much slower route than the straighter right hand channel used on a fuller river.

Approaching the finish and with the river being nice and full it was clear that all 4 boats would choose the faster right hand channel. As we paddled closer to the entrance of the right hand channel something really strange happened… The boat on the right started yelling “GO LEFT!”. Surprised we looked around but the yelling continued but now getting a lot more desperate! At the last possible moment all 4 boats cut almost 90 degrees across the river towards the left hand channel. As we committed to the slower left channel the boat that had been shouting for us to go left cut back across the river to the faster right hand channel. But for the 2 stronger boats it was too late to turn and we had to take the longer route.
As the 2 channels rejoined 400m before the finish line my heart sunk as I saw the other 2 boats now with a 60m lead…

The results were as follows: 1st King/Schloms, 2nd Bohm/Glass, 3rd Stott/Solomon, 4th Rabie/Birkette. Slightly unexpected and a little disappointing…

Pre race press
During race press
Post race press

More Racing

antstott — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:41:15 +0000

Robertson – Bonnivale (Breede River)
2 weekends ago I flew down to the Cape to do some training in the K2 with Graeme. On the Saturday we raced in one of the Breede marathon warm up races. With the river being extremely low the much lighter crew of Pierre-Andre Rabie and the other Andrew Birkette seemed to have the better of us through the shallow sections. Fortunately the finish was in a deep pool which allowed Graeme and I to put the hammer down to sneak past them in the sprint to take the win.

Camps Drift Night Race (Pietermaritzburg)
Last Thursday evening was a very special occasion as Cam and I decided to jump in the boat again for the first time in 3yrs. The last time we paddled together was when we crossed the line for the world title in the Czech Republic in 2008.
It was great fun to be racing with Cam again but we had our work cut out for us by the well tested combination oh Hank and Grant who took the first hot-spot prize. The 2nd hot-spot prize was at the end of a portage so Cam and I made sure we took that one! In the end it was Hank and Grant who with a very strong sprint took the race win.
For Cam and I that old feeling in the boat is still there but we definitely need a few sessions in the boat, and maybe in daylight to bring it to the surface again!

Dam2Dam 2 day river adventure
Over the weekend I did a new race on a section of river I have never seen before. Day 1 was from albert Falls weir down to Cumberland farm and day 2 from there to Nagle Dam.
The concept is that you have to race as a pair, so either in a K2 or as two K1’s making it fairly tactical but a lot of fun!
I teamed up with Shaun Griffen in K1’s. Shaun is a master in the tricky stuff making him the obvious choice for a race filled with A grade rapids all being negotiated blindly.
The first 18km of Day 1 was pretty straight forward allowing the K2’s the advantage but coming into the final 10km of awesome and technical rapids the K1 teams started closing the gap. At the overnight stop it was Mbanjwa/Zondi (K2) in the lead with Birkette/Mulder (K1’s) about 2min back in 2nd. Then there were 2 more K2’s followed by myself and Shaun (K1’s) in 5th.
Day 2 saw us off into the unknown on a section of river that promised to be packed with non-stop action and adventure! Within a few kilometers we had already caught and overtaken two of the K2’s, our choice of paddling K1’s was starting to pay off! After about 45min we came past Mbanjwa/Zondi (K2) who started the day in the lead and 4 and a half min ahead of us. Now all that was left out front was the K1 pairing of Birkette/Mulder and this was how things stayed until the finish.
Paddling through one of the most beautiful, untouched, remote valleys that I have ever seen, down some of the best rapids that I have ever encountered, this is a race that will be marked in my calendar as a ‘must do’ every single year! Thank you to DUCT and the Lembethe Canoe club for opening my eyes to to one of the best rivers in the country and it’s literally right on our doorstep!

SA Marathon champs, Singapore bound!

antstott — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:34:16 +0000

After last years disastrous world champs in Spain Graeme Solomon and I decided to put all of our energy into being selected for the national marathon team in the K2. The SA champs was raced in bitterly cold conditions on Shongweni dam just outside Durban. It was not long before we were down to a front group of 4 boats which stayed that way for the entire race. There was always pretty good action for the spectators as the bunch came into and out of the portages. At the final portage Cam and Brandon had some admin allowing the other 3 boats to fight it out for the colour of their medals over the final kilometer. Hank and Grant took the win with Graeme and I 2nd and Mike Mbajwa/Eric Zondi in 3rd.
With 2 boats selected per race, per country this meant that Graeme and I secured a spot in the national team to race in the World Championships in Singapore at the end of October.

Flat water marathon season

antstott — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:27:15 +0000

Still a bit sad that I had to miss this years racing in Spain there was at least some kind of consolation. This year for the first time the province of KZN had a 4 race flat water marathon series. With SA champs and trials being on the same course it was perfect race practice for the big event.
In the first of the 4 warm-up events I won the singles.
The 2nd race was hotly contested with myself, Cam, Len and Brandon VdV making up the front bunch. In the end it was the determined Cam Schoeman taking the sprint with me in 2nd, followed by Brandon and Len.
Race 3 with most of the top guys in K2’s I had an easy win.
For the final race of the series Graeme Solomon flew up from Cape Town to join me in the K2. After an extremely physical race with more than enough barging and contact in the portage are, as well as its fair share of unnecessary drama, it was Cam and Brandon who snuck past us in the final seconds to take the win.

A change of plan

antstott — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 19:51:09 +0000

After much thought and intense discussions with various important people I finally decided, in fact it become obvious that doing this years 4 day 244km Berg River Marathon is not the best thing for me right now…
Although it is possible that I have sufficiently prepared for this grueling race I am worried that it will set me back a little too far with regards to me top end speed. With only one month until this years national marathon trials I think it will be safer to rather focus all of my energy into being selected to race the world champs later on this year.
Things may have been different had I not suffered the 2 months off as a result of my broken fingers which has seriously hampered my preparation.
I have been back on the water for a full month now and the good feeling for the water is finally coming back. After last years disaster of a world champs in Spain Graeme Solomon and I aim to rectify our misfortune by giving it our all again in the K2 for the marathon selection and hopefully world champs in Singapore later on this year.

Berg River Marathon- taking on the challenge

antstott — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:15:07 +0000

Back on the water in my boat and no time for games. I have been dabbling with some paddling for about a week and a half now, to be precise I have done 10x 10km easy paddles. Don’t ask my why but for some reason I threw in a last minute entry for this years 50th Berg. 244.3km over 4 days from Paarl to Port Owen on a little river with not much flow. To make matters worse the conditions are also normally far from ideal, freezing cold (literally), windy, raining, tree blocks and generally unpleasant.
However I look forward to this challenge and it it gives me good reason to rack up some good milage before the national marathon selection in mid August, so I have no doubt that if all goes according to plan I will at latest be fit by then!
The big names in Berg have been slogging it out for months already so biting off more than I can chew is an understatement. This was not part of the plan and how I normally approach big races. Thanks to my 2 months off after breaking my fingers I shall be slightly underprepared but still excited to give it a good go!
I did my last Berg while still at school in 1996 so do not have too much course knowledge. Next weekend I will be heading down to the Cape to do some training on the river with some of the locals. I am hoping this should give me a good feel for the race which commences 12 July.

Race website.