It's hard to believe that the 2014-15 paddling season is over for us. Having competed in the 2nd annual DB Lovers Dragon Boat races in Sai Kung, and the Stanley Warm-Up races in May, we were well and truly warmed up for the main event -- the Stanley International Championship Races. Although this is our ninth season as a team, our members and dynamic are never the same. We were at a slight disadvantage this year also, as the HKA school year had wrapped up and we were down a couple of our regular paddlers. Thankfully, we were given a helping hand by Brett (former Dragonfly), Morgan, Marcus, Mitch and Ian, (It has been a long time since we have had such a 'boy-heavy' boat!) as well as Chloe, who was our guest drummer for the event.
We entered the heats with mixed emotions. There were a number of teams that we had raced in the past, and a couple of unknowns, and, as the eighteen of us hadn't ever paddled all together before, we weren't too sure of what our expectations should be. With the tight schedule at the event, we knew that the race starts would be called efficiently, but we weren't prepared for non-call. Before we knew it, the gun was fired and we were left to scramble out of the docks. Still, we paddled our hardest and ended up coming in third out of twelve teams, behind the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and Island ECC, with a time of 1:19. This meant that we had qualified for the Cup Semi-Finals, which we were thrilled about! |
This meant for a tough second race against some big name teams -- the Seagods, both teams from the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, and the Swiss Team and Heidi, to name a few. This pushed us to paddle our hardest! More surprises awaited as the races were moved up twenty minutes or so...! Arriving at the beach from the shuttle boat, we were mortified to hear the announcers calling our team name. We dashed down the beach and loaded the boat for Race 35, as our competitors were already lined up at the starting docks!! In spite of all this, we pulled out with a stronger start than our first race, finishing with our best race time of the day at 1:17:375. We came in eight place out of twelve teams in this race, which pushed us forward to the Silver Cup B Final.
Four hours later, we paddled our last race -- the Silver Cup B Final. We arrived in plenty of time to avoid any more surprises this time! This was a tough race, and ten out of the twelve teams came within tenths of a second of our time at 1:19:485. Spectators watching our race come in described it as a "wall of boats", as it was so close! We came in ninth out of twelve teams in this race, placing ourselves at 33rd out of the 194 Mixed Teams that were competing on the day. What a result! We can't wait to do it all over again next season! |
A HUGE thank you to our sponsors, Tsunami Sport, The Hive Sai Kung, Casa Sai Kung, i-Land and Chartwells for your support throughout the season. We couldn't have done it without you!
Please have a look at our Facebook Photos from the Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships, as well as our videos page for footage (and times!) of all three of our races.
Watch this space for more updates in the near future, but for now, we are 'Paddles DOWN' for the Summer :)
Cheers!
The HKA Dragonflies!
Please have a look at our Facebook Photos from the Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships, as well as our videos page for footage (and times!) of all three of our races.
Watch this space for more updates in the near future, but for now, we are 'Paddles DOWN' for the Summer :)
Cheers!
The HKA Dragonflies!
Congratulations to all who competed in the Stanley International Championship Races on 20th June!
The HKA Dragonflies wish you a wonderful Summer. See you next Season! :)
The HKA Dragonflies wish you a wonderful Summer. See you next Season! :)