27 August 2009

After 2 days of racing

The dragon boat world championship has been very exciting so far. The team from Vancouver is competing in the Premier Mixed and the Mens divisions. Canada is being represented in the other divisions - womens, juniors, seniorsn etc. - by teams from Montreal and Toronto.

On day 1, it was the 2000 metre races. Ed competed in the Premier Mixed division and his team placed fourth out of 14 teams. They missed the bronze medal by .5 of a second! So close! They were pleased with how they paddled and quite excited about racing against the best in the world.

Today, it was the 1000 metre races for the mens division. Most of these guys are huge! And so many fast teams, that each race is very important. Only the top two teams frrom each heat advance. Ed's team did well in their heats and made it to the finals (top 6 teams). The race was so close and for the second day in a row, they finished fourth with a time of 4 mins 9 secs. And just .4 of a second behind third. This is the best placing the mens team have had in a long time and everyone was pretty pumped about that race. Slovakia was 1st, US 2nd, and Germany 3rd.

Tomorrow will be the 200 metre races. Paddles up!

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