Roseville Sunday 6th November 2005
So it begins.
The location: Garigal National Park, Roseville.
The Date: Sunday the 6th of November
The event, City Dragons announce there intentions to the DB community.
The Day started as usual for City Dragons, 8am everyone to assemble at race venue.
As if. Pretty much most people were there by 9ish, so all in all business as usual for
City Dragons working off Chinese time but lets not dwell on that too much, small steps Kim, small steps. Anyway the races were running about an hour behind, so no drama, relax Kim, relax.
You could feel the excitement. For many of us it was our first Sports Crew Race day.
For many it was their first actual Race Day! For the seasoned paddlers the
enthusiasm of the newbie’s was catching. What would the day bring? For the Opens, a fusing of last years team and new keen untried paddlers, so close so many times but with a new attitude, a new organisation, albeit still experimenting with race strategies but mainly just aiming to be competitive at this stage of the season. For the Women’s, a completely unknown quantity. A few seasoned paddlers, a few one season paddlers, the rest new untried, untested at any distance. A coaching regime not straight out of the “How to get along with women” text book but none the less, getting results in training in a very short period of time. Lets just be competitive was the coaching mantra but the ladies had a different agenda. The mixed team was without as much focus or expectation, consisting of old & new heads out to do their best.
The mixed opened proceedings with a solid win. Shake out the cobwebs, calm the nerves, mainly just get on the water. Wei-Yen took the helm in his first foray into racing and handled himself and more importantly the boat in style, no one more relieved and excited than Wie-Yen!
Then it was the Women’s turn. What a baptism of fire for our gallant untried ladies. Ingy taking the helm for her first race and in Lane 3 Sloths, Women’s State/National/World/Universe Club Crew Champions, Lane 2 City Dragons (60-40-60!). Oh but what a race, with the lads yelling encouragement from the shoreline & Ingy screaming from the stern, the ladies took it to Sloths & it took some serious paddling from Sloths to pull away at the finish, only to win by less than a boat length. Do they dare to dream?
Then onto the Opens Crew. Us against Navy. From start to finish, nothing in it, so close it was a dead heat. The usual City Dragons first race blues gone in an instant.
Back to the mixed team, a few crew changes and back into it, another strong performance. In the A final but would all this racing take its toll?
The women, up against PD’s 2nd in the sate and Tsunami, tough ask. A solid 3rd place but finishing strongly almost getting 2nd but safely in the A final.
The Opens, no real competition in this heat but a new race strategy, nothing like fine tuning during a race! A few tense moments but in the end an easy victory, into the A Final.
The Finals.
Mixed Crew. Nerves? A new combination? Who knows but a strong paddle didn’t bring the result, no bling bling but early days. Coaching staff to review & analyse. But the resolve of the team was to build on this and improve.
Women. Just happy to be competitive Jabba? Not these ladies, Bring home the Bling Bling was the war cry, that and 60-40-60! Who are we? Insert response here Yatesie/Stevo. A long day, untried, untested but giving it their all. Powering home, sticking to the race plan, City Dragons Women’s, in a nail biting finish took 3rd!!! BRING IT ON LADIES! What a result, coach over the moon, club ecstatic & worried faces all round from opposing teams. WHO ARE WE! Insert appropriate response Yatesie/Stevo.
Opens. Oh the pressure, the tension, but hey in true DC or CD style lets tinker with the race plan, yet again! What? It’s a final? Who cares, bring it on. Bring Ingy into the starting 20, obviously the feeling from the selection committee was the boat lacked voice. The start was a debarcle, back and forth jostling for start positions, too far left, too far right, finally ARE YOU READY, ATTENTION, GO! And what a race all 5 boats no more than 15m apart. Us, Navy and Sloths within a metre, paddles clashing and to think these boys steer ships for aliving?. Half way nothing in it. Time to dig deep boys and dig we did, composure, not a word associated with City Dragons, but compose, reach and RIP IT & don’t you just love it when a plan comes together. On the line, too close to call, so close it took a photo finish to separate the teams, less than 3/100ths of a second between 1st Sloths (National Champions) and 2nd CITY DRAGONS!!!!!! BLING BLING!
A very happy team? Oh you better believe it.
What a day, what a result, all 3 teams making A Finals, 2 out of the 3 bringing home BLING BLING. Gotta be happy with that.
One race does not make a trip to Toronto. There is so much still to be done but the positives gained from today far out weigh any negatives. Yes our starts were less than impressive, yes our timing left a lot to be desired at times BUT we are competative. We now know that it will take a lot of work and dedication as a team to acheive our goals.
A great day, the City Dragons family continues to grow, family & friends of the team joined us for the usual superb spread, salads, chickens, slice you name it we had it. Oh how envious the other clubs are, looking on with grim faces at their vegemite sandwiches & wondering, when did this all happen? Who are these people? And why are they having so much fun?
To everyone involved it was a team effort, this is the type of day that will make us successful. Everyone contributed but a few special thanks to the following.
A big thanks to Kim for the catering, pretty sure everyone liked it.
To Ingy & Wei-Yen, champion effort, Daly, what can we say, when the pressure was on you again delivered, maybe those Power strokes are making a difference.
Jabba, surprised? Your girls might just be listening but be assured only while they are talking.
Azza & Kim, captains extraordinaire.
MVU, we might try to get the team lists together for you BEFORE the race day next time.
To Mrs. Goyoaga, Paul did you proud!
Here are the paddlers in no particular order
Kim(Captain),Anouchkas,Babs,Bev,Cindy,Chau,Christine,Connie,Gina,Ingy,Julie,
Karen,Ling Ling,Lisa,Lou,Mandy,Ackers,Mish,Shell,Naomi,Peta,Sue,Tiffany,Trish,
Ursula,Azza(Captain),Dale,Daly,Darren,David S,David Y,Felix,John,Joe,Louman,
Keifa,MVU,Reggae,Mike M,Ningus,Neil,Paul Goyoaga,Jabba,Richard,Steve,Stevo,Wei-Yen
