CIRENCESTER'S Peter Reed - a world champion rower and Oxford Blue - beat crocodiles and Cambridge in a boat race on South Africa's Zambezi River.

Two months after winning world gold in Japan, the 24-year-old ex-Cirencester Deer Park School pupil took to the croc-infested river, with hunters covering the water with guns.

Elephants and hippos were other obstacles in the race marking the 150th anniversary of Livingstone's discovery of Victoria Falls.

Royal Navy officer Reed's Old Blues crew even included a David Livingstone.

Racing over a 2,000-metre course, one kilometre above Victoria Falls, Reed and world champion crewmate, Andy Hodge, helped Oxford beat Cambridge, although both lost to a South African crew.

Reed said: "Neither of the crews had done any real training and there was a bit of illness flying around as well.

"It was all good fun and we accidentally wound down a couple of strokes before the line, which made it closer with Cambridge than it should have been.

"We did win the sprint race with a bit to spare, though, and the Victor Ludorum.

"It was a fantastic trip, with safaris, bungy jumping off the falls bridge, white water rafting and wild African music to boot."

Reed then went to America to compete in the world's largest rowing race, the 6,000-competitor Boston Head of the Charles.

Watched by 100,000 people, his crew finished behind the Light Blues.

They won the curtain-raiser sprint against the current Cambridge squad, the Dutch and Italian national boats and America's top crews.

Despite having fellow world champion four crewmates, Steve Williams and Alex Partridge, and other GB internationals aboard, Reed's eight finished fifth in the 800-boat head time-trial over the twisting three-mile course.

Six-foot-six-inch Reed is training daily, having taken time off from the Navy to pursue his dream of winning Olympic gold in Beijing.

He will compete in the 550-boat National Fours Head, over Windsor's reverse Boat Race course, later this month.

Reed said: "It's sunk in now that I'm a world champion and it feels great but that means I've got to train even harder to stay on top."