The Dragon Boat National Championships and Club Crew World Championships have been an exciting time for Brisbane River Dragons with the club achieving outstanding success during both events. The preparation of teams by Head Coach Ewen McDonald for these events was very thorough and contributed greatly to their overall results achieved, however, without the commitment of members to training and competition the success would not have been possible.
The National Championships were held in Adelaide at the West Lakes Regatta Centre from 23-28 March. Prior to the event we set goals to retain 2016 Club Crew World Championship qualifications; to qualify for as many events as possible for CCWC in 2018; and to regain the Masters Club Champions Trophy which we won in 2013 and 2014, but lost to Manly in 2015.
Goals set were achieved including winning the Master Club Champions Trophy. Throughout the course of the event BRD won a total of 21 medals including 13 Gold, 7 Silver and 1 Bronze. It was a fantastic effort from all concerned achieving results, towards which, everyone can feel rightly proud to have made a great contribution.
The following placings were achieved by teams during Nationals:-
Gold
Senior C Mixed Standard 200
Senior B Mixed Standard 200
Senior C Open Small 200
Senior B Open Small 200
Senior A Open Standard 200
Senior B Mixed Standard 2000
Senior C Mixed Standard 2000
Senior C Mixed Standard 500
Senior B Mixed Standard 500
Senior C Open Small 500
Senior B Open Small 500
Senior B Open 2000
Premier Women Small 2000
Silver
Senior C Women Small 200
Senior B Women Standard 200
Senior A Mixed 2000
Senior C Women Small 500
Senior A Open Standard 500
Senior A Open Standard 2000
Senior B Women Standard 2000
Bronze
Senior B Women Standard 500
The Club Crew World Championships were also held in Adelaide and from 1-7 April. Crews from Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and North America competed for the spoils.
Once again BRD teams performed very strongly winning a total of 17 medals, which, other than 18 by Canberra Grammar in the Junior division, was the greatest number of medals won by any single club at the event. The results were simply outstanding against some very good opposition. The medal tally included 7 Gold, 6 Silver and 4 Bronze. Overall, BRD finished 5th on the gold medal tally in the Standard Boat category, and 4th in the Small Boat category.
Results included:-
Gold
Senior A Open Standard 2000
Missabittatitti Women Standard 2000
Senior B Mixed Standard 500
Senior C Open Small 500
Senior B Women Small 500
Senior C Open Small 200
Senior B Open Small 200
Silver
Senior C Mixed Standard 2000
Senior C Women Small 500
Senior B Open Small 500
Senior B Mixed Standard 200
Senior C Women Small 200
Senior B Women Small 200
Bronze
Senior B Mixed Standard 2000
Senior C Mixed Standard 500
Senior A Open Standard 500
Senior A Open Standard 200
Thanks go to Ewen and all other coaches for the preparation this time around. To achieve results of this kind at these levels of competition is amazing and testament to the dedication of paddlers, sweeps, drummers and coaches alike. Another special thankyou to Gail Brouwer for all her dedication as our administration officer during the event.
Now that Nationals and Worlds are over for another year, we can now turn our minds to Nationals for 2017 in Albury Wodonga, and CCWC in Szeged, Hungary in 2018. Results at Nationals this year means qualification will have been achieved in a number of events for Hungary 2018. Are you on board? Start the preparation, bring some friends and build the numbers across all our age categories as we move forward for the next two years. Future success is in all our hands.
Mark Slater
President
