The SuperSprints marked the beginning of the Dog Paddlers' sixth year of competitive dragon boat racing. There are a number of new faces in the boat this year, but lots of returning veterans too. Seating plans were a lot more varied than in the past; Coach Jacob spent many hours juggling configurations to come up with the rosters that put various bums in various seats...with good results, it would appear.
Race 1 is the seeding race; it's not so much your placement but your time that determines which division you are going to fall into for your semi-finals and finals. The Dog Paddlers did well, finishing second in our first heat, with a very respectable time of 1:07:79, about a second and a quarter back of the first-place finishers, the Westshore Warriors. Our time put us into the top—or Blue—division for our semi-final. Watch this race at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dn43D1RBJPU.
In our semi-final, we came up against some formidable competition: Xtreme Reach, Precision Impossible and the Westshore Warriors (again). Although our hopes were high, we knew it would be a real coup if we managed to knock off any of those teams. But you know, dogs always like to chase things, and that's what the Dog Paddlers did...nipped at the heels of the other teams throughout the race but ran out of race course before we could put our dragon's nose ahead of everyone else's. There wasn't much time separating first from fourth, and only 36/100ths of a second between us and the third place finishers, Precision Impossible.
The finish of our Blue semi-final race. Dog Paddlers are in lane 1.
With our fourth-place finish in our semi, we ended up in the Blue B final, guaranteeing ourselves a top-eight finish. Last year, we had finished seventh, so we were determined to do at least as well this year. The line-up for the final: Dog Paddlers, Blu By U, Precision Impossible and VCKC Green Machine. All day, the Dog Paddlers had been coming from behind, kicking it up a notch with our finishes. When other teams were starting to run out of steam, the Dog Paddlers were ratcheting things up and surging towards the finish line. In our final race of the day, we followed that same pattern, although it was neck and neck right across the race course for the entire run. That extra push...and we finished second! Wahoo!! Overall that put us in sixth place. But by time...we had the third best time of the day: 1:02:90. We were only beaten in time by Blu By U in our final, and the overall winners of the day, the Navy Dragon Anchors. Way to go, dawgs!! (Watch this race at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umi9o3tDBrA)
This was my first dragon boat event where I wasn't paddling. Issues with my back and sciatic nerve are keeping me out of the boat this year. Instead, I'm shore support and chronicler—taking pictures, videotaping the races, posting on the Dog Paddlers website (http://sites.google.com/site/dogpaddlers/Home), etc. It's not quite the same, for sure, but at least it keeps me involved with the team. (Apparently I'm also official fudge-and-meringues supplier to the team as well.)
No comments:
Post a Comment