Lowther Earns Surprise Oceania Championship Win

22 year-old Steven Lowther has pulled off an impressive feat in winning the Oceania Championship title in the men’s C1 with his victory coming over a host of more experienced paddlers.

With the Championships held in Penrith, Lowther scored an Oceania senior and U23 title double as the best ranked paddler from the region after the semi-final stage of the C1 class competition.

The Championships were open to international competitors, which meant the field was dominated by European raiders. As a result no Australian or New Zealand paddlers successfully managed to progress to the 10-man final, which meant the best ranked performances from the semi-finals were carried over.

Consequently, Lowther’s time of 113.84secs for 15th place in the semi-finals stage, earned him the spoils of victory ahead of the next best Aussies, Daniel Watkins (19th in 115.61) and Tristan Carter (20th in 115.82).

The Western Australian admitted a level of surprise at his result but is now aiming to build on his opportunity if given the nod at World Cup level later in the year.

“I’m really pleased with my result today, I delivered what I wanted to, had a few spots I want to improve on, but big picture I’m really happy ending up in 15th overall, it was one of my better races,” he said.

“I didn’t believe that I was top ranked when I found out, but it gives me a lot of confidence that I have what it takes to be up there with the best, going into Tokyo 2020.”

Speaking on the makeup of the Australian team for the 2019 international season, Lowther added: “I’ll have to wait and see what happens with selections as to what races I’ll be given but hopefully I’ll qualify for some World Cups and make the semis there and hopefully go to Senior World Championships and go from there.”

Photo: © Caromoda Photography