Race report for the 2003 Alcan Dragonboat Festival is now up.
The 2003 Alcan Dragonboat festival, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, had its 15th Anniversary running just this June. Vancouver offers some of the toughest racing to be found on the West Coast. This year the field comprised of 162 mixed crews, 14 men’s crews, 18 women’s crews, and 15 junior crews. The Laoyam Eagles, a junior division crew, also contested the mixed division (recreational & competitive) as the “Canadian National Junior Crew”. Visiting teams this year came from Germany, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, and Toronto.
This year’s race grid was structured differently from previous year’s runnings. In addition to Consolation rounds, all mixed crews were given a chance to qualify into both the Competitive Divisions (A & B) as well as the Recreational Divisions (A, B, C, D & E). Previous years kept the divisions separated. That gave the welcome benefit of adding more depth and challenge to the racing.
Saturday’s racing conditions saw some cooler temperatures, with lightly overcast skies and a thankfully brief, 5 minute period of liquid sunshine. The A.M. session saw faster racing conditions with a strong tailwind, and a fast-flowing, out-going tide.
Something new to the Alcan Dragonboat Festival was the addition of the appropriately named, “Aluminum Chef” competition, where 4 top chefs from local restaurants would square off. No word on whether or not “Diced Kaga” was to be the theme ingredient.
One of the greatest things to look forward to, each year, is to find out about all the wonderful and colorful team names being used. Wayne’s Weiner’s, PH&N Horny Goat and the Enviro-Mentals were just an example of a few. But the award for Best Name surely had to go to Price Waterhouse Cooper’s PwC Powerful Wet Chickens.
Seeding and Quarter-final races took place Saturday, with the Quarter-finals determining advancements into corresponding Divisions. The San Diego Dragonboat team, CIBC Imperial Dragons and Victoria Gorging Dragons all showed exceptionally strong performances, posting sub 2-minute race times. The closest race of the day also came with the
www.Roli.com Rebels narrowly pipping BC Hydro Power Smart Dragons to the line by .03 seconds for 1st place, in the Quarter-finals.
The last two races of Saturday saw two medal rounds taking place. The Senior’s Championship Final saw the False Creek Grandragons take the Gold with a very competitive time of 2:11.670. The
www.Roli.com Dragons took Gold in the Nokia Hi-tech Cup with a solid performance, posting a 2 second split over 2nd place Alpha (Dragons Red & Blue) Techies.
Sunday’s weather was perfect with blue skies and low winds.. The tides had slowed down considerably compared to the previous day’s runnings. With the nice, hot summer weather, hydration became the watchword of the day.
Racing started in earnest with the promise of many close finishes as all teams were now seeded together based on similar performances. Sure enough, the 4 semi-finals in the combined Recreational A and Competitive division all had the top 2 teams decide the race to within tenths of a second.
Eye of the Dragon, a local team that fields blind & low vision paddlers put in a fine performance with 1st place in the Recreational C Semi-finals, and later followed it up with 2nd overall in the Recreational C Championship.
The Junior Finals were held in the Sunday AM session, with the Laoyam Eagles handily winning it with a sub 2 minute time.
The Recreational B Championship was an exciting race to watch, as the
www.Roli.com Rebels, Toronto’s Air Canada’s Jetstart, and Seattle’s Team Sake took to the lead pack. The
www.Roli.com Rebels were in fine form as they began to pull away, putting a half a boat-length up on the Toronto Crew. Air Canada Jetstart held off Seattle Team Sake to take 2nd place with a strong finish.
Results highlights showed:
Plaza of Nations
Recreational B Championship
1.
www.Roli.com Rebels 2:18.830
2. Air Canada Jetstart 2:21.470
3. Seattle’s Team Sake 2:21.830
The TCC Carib Dragoneers were one of the most improved teams, from 2nd place in the Recreational C Division last year, to taking a convincing win in the Recreational A Division Championship with a +2 second gap up on second place.
Results highlights showed:
Concord Pacific Group
Recreational A Championship
1. TCC Carib Dragoneers 2:16.120
2. Man’s CC Dragons 2:19.670
3. Dragon Warriors 1 2:18.330
The Competitive B Final was a tight race, with all 9 boats within 1-2 seconds of each other. The teams split into two main packs with the Canadian National Junior Team, Steamrollers and Team Huge Mixed leading the way. The Announcer declared the Steamrollers taking the lead off the start and into the halfway marker. The Canadian National Junior team then put up a strong charge midway to take the lead. The Steamrollers responded with a strong finish to pass the Canadian National Juniors, but were held off by 0.04th’s of a second as they crossed the finish line. 3rd place and the Bronze went to Team Huge Mixed.
Results highlights showed:
Government of Canada
Competitive B Championship
1. Canadian National Junior Crew 2:09.370
2. Steamrollers 2:09.410
3. Team Huge Mixed 2:09.710
The Competitive A Final promised to be a fantastic race to watch, with the top teams battling it out for Gold. The race started with the visiting Portland Mixed team leading the way. Midway through the race the Portland Mixed, Alcan Team Success,
www.Roli.com Dragons and Alpha Dragons Red separated themselves from the pack by just one boat-length to lead the way to the finish.
The crowds erupted into a deafening roar as the 4 teams surged side-by-side on the final stretch. Portland Mixed held off Alcan Team Success as they crossed the line for the Gold and a .430 second split up on second place. The
www.Roli.com Dragons, trailing slightly behind the Alpha Dragons Red at the 150m mark wicked it up for the finish, charging past for the Bronze with exactly one tenth of a second to spare.
Results highlights showed:
Alcan Primary Metal, BC
Competitive A Championship
1. Portland Mixed 1:59:930
2. Alcan’s Team Success 2:00.360
3.
www.Roli.com Dragons 2:00.800
The Men’s Division Final saw the tightest finishing race ever. The Portland Paddling Club put in another fine performance, taking the win by 0.04’s of a second. Both Alcan Team Success and C.I.B.C. False Creek Men’s team each carded a time of 1:58.070, their race was to be decided to the thousand’s of a second. At last report, were carefully reviewing race video and timings to determine second place. The San Diego Dragonboat team put in a spectacular performance with the win in the Women’s Division Championship Final, keeping a 3 second gap over the False Creek Women.
Results highlights showed:
Granville Island Brewing
Men’s Division Championship
1. Portland Paddling Club 1:58.030
2. Alcan’s Team Success 1:58.070
Shopper’s Drug Mart
Women’s Division Championship Final
1. San Diego Dragon Boat Team 2:11.320
2. False Creek Women 2:15.190
Definitely the most talked about and highly anticipated race of the weekend was the first ever running of a 2,000m Dragonboat race, a first for Vancouver. The top 6 placing teams from the top 3 Divisions (Competitive A & B and Recreational A respectively) earned an entry into the “Guts ‘n Glory” race. 18 teams racing for the Grand Prize, free entry into next year’s Alcan Dragonboat Festival!
The race was held on the slightly narrower version of the existing 500m race course, and all teams were required to complete 2 full laps of the entire circuit. All boats were pre-staged 3 abreast, with the racers holding the boats together gunnel to gunnel.
As the pods approached the start line approached the start line, the boats would separate, with each boat individually approaching the start line. The teams were set off at 10 second intervals by the Water Referees. Running starts were the name of the game.
Rough water, high wakes, wide turns, tight turns, and boats sometimes charging 5 abreast into corners all made for very exciting racing. Places were easily gained and lost through the corners. There were no major collisions, although paddles clashing and boats coming together were not uncommon.
Although passing was only permitted on the outside through the corners, it quickly appeared that the fastest way around the course was to take as tight a turn as possible. This year’s Dragonboats were equipped with a lighter oar, one that was more flexible through the shaft and had a slightly smaller blade surface area. The steersman could not rely on simply drawing the oar fast enough to get the boat turned, as the oar would flex quite a bit. Many boats employed the help of seat one (or seats 1 and 2) to assist with the steering either by drawing or jamming the blade against the boat at the water level. The finals results showed the CIBC Imperial Dragons taking the win with 8.490 seconds to spare over the Portland Mixed Team.
Results highlights showed:
Canadian International Dragonboat Festival
Guts & Glory 2000m Championship Race
1st place CIBC Imperial Dragons 9:38.760
2nd place Portland Mixed 9:47.250
3rd place Alcan’s Team Success 9:49.140
4th place Canadian National Junior Crew 10:08.440
5th place
www.Roli.com Dragons 10:08.520
By all accounts the First Annual Guts ‘n Glory race was well received by both Racers and Spectators. It is well hoped that this race will become a permanent fixture within the Alcan Dragonboat Festival.
It was a successful running of the 2003 edition of the Vancouver Festival. A veritable army of volunteers worked hard behind the scenes, to keep the clockworks moving. The racing was grand, and the festival entertainment was outstanding.
Special thanks go out to Leah Nagano – Race Registrar for getting all the teams signed up and marshaled. Dario “will you please press the button!” Baldasso and Larry Chu for all their work at the Start line. Vance Schneider and Debra Hicks for co-coordinating all the volunteers and of course, all the volunteers! A welcome change came with official race results, in that they were posted, and FAST! A first for Vancouver! Great job to Brad Howie, Alvin Wang, and other finish line staff for their work. And last, but not least, Greg Lamb – Race Director for handling, well, just about everything
