CPRT races Dragonboats in Canberra

Lake Burley Griffin played host to Dragon Boat teams from across Australia.

 

Day 1 – 500m races, saw the Canoes Plus team draw lane 1 and give it there all in the first heat, once across the finish line no paddler in the boat could speak as we waited on the official results. Third place in the heat put us into the final in lane 2. We were to discover later that lane 1 was a dud lane with a shallow bank and wave wash and no team had placed from that lane. Come the final our boat burst out of the start line to an early lead, the essense of our training was our explosive starts, we continued the pace over the full distance and won the event. Competition was fierce and to outrace the other teams was tribute to the teamwork in our boat.

 

Day 2 – 200m races. On the back of our 500m finals win we turned up in the athletes village with comments flying about the "Grey Ghosts" (our uniform was a grey shirt), "So where are you guys from?" was a continual question. Answer: Canoes Plus Racing Team.

We were pretty pumped up and new we would be very strong in the short sprint. Again the boys put in a big effort and placed first in our heat. Before the final we had a good warm up session in the park and a good pep talk to get our mindset focused. Every team in our finals race was revved up and every team wanted to win. We had to want it more, and we did want it more, punching out another strong performance to edge ahead for our second gold trophy.

 

Day 3 – 2000m time trial races. The first two days produced excellent results and our Canoes Plus team had everyones attention. We had proven ourselves as sprinters, we were fast but could we maintain it over distance.

 

Michael Cain comments:

Not often i come home from an event  feeling so satisfied and even had we placed second in the 2000 i thought it was a great paddle in tough conditions (ie sloppy water ) , and would have still said i was happy with the weekend

The 2000 was a tough race we pushed hard up the first 500 and made up time ,  we didn’t ease up down the 2^nd 500 and turned at the finish/ 1000 mark right on BRDs tail  – after the turn bailing had certainly cost us time and the boat seemed hard to get moving again coming out of the 1000 turn –  up that straight  BRD went for it and opened up a big gap  ,larger than the 20 second start we gave them , i thought the steering which has often been questionable over past yrs  was excellent  for the whole weekend   – when we turned for the last time at the 1500 mark  and roy wheeled us in to the inside i could see we had the best chance we were going to get to make up lost time ( and we did ) i for one feel good inside when the sweep is making decisions i would have made myself had i the sweep oar in my own hands – the boys powered home and the crowd roared –  i did realise they were cheering the sinking Bei loon dungers but in my own mind  let that cheer be for us the “ unknown soldiers” of  dragon boat racing – but unlike the unknown soldier laying  1 km up the hill in the memorial we had something to say out loud and when that crusty old commentator who annoyed the heck out of us all weekend finally made the call  to present  medals for the 2000 mtr GOLD  – “ Canoes plus” – the canoes plus soldiers did have their last say for the weekend     

( yrs later it would be recorded that folks visiting the unknown soldier up the hill at precisely 3.05 when we crossed the line for the last time a faint voice was heard from deep within the tomb                        –   That ‘ll do pig  – that ‘ll do )  

One will never know if we really had to bail out water as it certainly cost us time but i thought we may well have sunk if we didn’t and turning at the top for the last time and seeing   Bei loon going down  i felt we probably were better off staying afloat and trying to make up time with a boat up and running versus going backwards half full of water or even worse sinking and not placing at all

A cruel part of the race perhaps was the fact that we pushed so hard thru the first 650 to 700 mts , gained so much ground that when we hit the concrete wall area we were close to the other boats and their wash was bouncing off the wall and coming straight in over the top of the boat with every stroke we took.   After we bailed we didn’t take on much more water at all , again we had dropped back a little plus being over on the far side helped , as we came down the final 500  by being quite a bit inside we did escape some of that concrete wall wash and maybe that helped us avoid some larger waves

I thought the effort over the last 400 mts was something to be proud of , i  am sure everyone gave it their all

Thanks to you all –   no doubt  there were 20 simpsons were on board that fine afternoon – April 3  2011

 

Well done to Canoes Plus team for a fantastic three days of successful racing.

Mark