Day 9 – IDBF World Dragon Boat Championships, 200m races The racing today was at the 200m distance for all levels. The 200m is a power race. The race plan is simply to paddle as hard as you can for ~45 seconds. You have a technique to start and it basically keeps going for the full 200m. It’s kind of like comparing sprinters to medium/long distance runners…sprinters are big, muscular and powerful. Medium and long distance runners are slim and light. We are probably the smallest team in our division (after the Japanese) particularly compared to the Germans and eastern European teams (Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, and Hungarians). These other guys are HUGE…there will be no point in trading my racing jersey with any of these guys ‘cause mine would never fit them (jersey trading is a highlight of the last day of racing…lots of hand language and talking louder when the other person doesn’t speak English…pretty funny to watch, actually). Our race plan was to have a strong start and pick up our stroke rate to compensate for the brute power we give up to the other teams. By winning our heat or being the 3rd fastest time overall in the heats, we would automatically advance to the final. Our start was good but we brought the rate up to high so we were really unable to get much power into each stroke. As a result, we came 3rd in our heat and had to race the repêchage (aka semi final)…bummer! The good thing was we all knew what we did and that we simply had to get back to what we practiced over and over and over and….We got to the semi and raced the Aussies, USA, Czech, Hungary and Japan and we needed to be in the top three to get to the final; not a sure thing. Again, our start was good and this time we transitioned into the rate that we know and love….we won our heat and moved on to the finals with the Aussies and USA though it was a tight race with only 1 second separating 1st from 5th. Our final was at 6PM…it had already been a long day under intense sun and heat (35C)…but we were ready and pumped. Our mantra was “speed, power and control” which is in parallel with our 500m+ distance mantra of “power, rhythm and control” Consider the other commands we hear from our drummer, Tammy, “C’mon guys, I want to feel your back end!!” or “GIVE IT TO ME!!!” and my favourite, “GIVE ME AN EXTRA INCH”. Honestly, we are only paddling… The way it works for all races is that you do an individual warm up about an hour before your race time then we do a team warm up. After the warm up, we find out the roster for the race. We are then called to a marshalling area where we stand in fenced ‘lanes’ under a big wedding tent with the 6 teams in the race prior to us and our 6 teams. It is jammed pack and after 4 days of racing in hot temperatures (and no breeze in the tent), it really smells bad (think of all the Hungarian sausages everyone has been eating here!). As we wait, our credentials are checked, they ensure your paddles are IDBF certified and that you are on the roster for the race. After 20 minutes in the tent, we are assigned to our boat and we get out into fresh air and load into our boat. As we paddled out of the dock, we had to stop for other races coming down the course. We are side by side with the other boats in the final (Australia, Poland, Germany, Ukraine, USA)…silence…everyone is focussed, eyes are in their own boat and thoughts…pretty impressive, really (I wonder if it is the same on women’s teams?). We have no time for any kind of warm up or practice start. The officials want us to get into position ASAP. Jeff, our steersperson, brings us into our proper lane and up to the starting block (a compressed air mechanism that the bow of your boat fits into and when the starter is ready to start the race, he says, “Attention please” and the blocks drop and you GO). Once the race starts, Tammy, our drummer, takes control and gives us our orders…she tells us when to bring the rate up, etc…in part using the previously mentioned commands. Our start was really good and we hammered. I couldn’t see the other boats but the noise is intense you just knew it was tight. We keep paddling until Tammy calls us down and when we looked up, all boats were even. We had no idea where we finished. All the boats paddled closer to the docks where they have a big video screen (like at hockey games) and everyone was staring at this until the results were posted as the finish line photo wasn’t definitive. Unfortunately, we are Senior A so we have to get closer than most to actually read it! We came 3rd!! We were sooo happy. We almost nudged out the Poles who came second and Germany was also just ahead. In fact, all the boats in the race were only separated by 8/10 of a second (the Aussies and Ukraine were a dead heat for 4th). Lots of back slapping and smiles back on shore. An impressive result given that the 200 is not our specialty as we aren’t a power team. Tonight we had a nice relaxing dinner, though our hotel is hosting a 350 person wedding with lots of dancing and music (as I type this) and the air-con in the hotel is not working….Oh well….Tomorrow, it all starts again but with 500m races. Again, it will be a dog-fight in our division. Cascades updates from IDBF worlds (200m races): Amanda, Kaitlin and Elizabeth – gold in U23 Mixed Amanda and Kaitlin – gold in U23 Women (10 person boat) Jacqueline, Bei and Lynne – gold in Senior B Women Natacha – gold in Senior A Women Elizabeth – gold in Premier Women Luc – silver in Premier Men Andy – bronze in Senior A Open
Posted on: Sat, 27 Jul 2013 20:58:06 +0000
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