The Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team passed 3 teams on their way to the finish in the 1000m Mini-Guts & Glory C Division.

Todd Wong steers the Gung Haggis dragon boat team, with Julie Wong as drummer.  The team is heading to their 2nd 200m sprint race. photo courtesy of Dave Samis.

We are having an INCREDIBLE time up here in VERNON….

The weather is beautiful, the sand is hot, the water is cooling.  And we visited the Grey Monk winery before attending the Vernon dragon boat race meeting on Friday night.

Today we paddled 4 races and had a blast. 
200m  0:58.80
200m  0:56.64
500m  2:31.34
1000m with turn 5:57.690

It was challenging as we are not used to racing 200m sprint races.   Our first 200m sprint was frantic, as we struggled to get used to the Dynasty dragon boat from Calgary.  Our 2nd sprint race was much better.  We got race jitters out of the way… and we improved from a 0:058.60 time to 0:56.30.  We improved by almost 2 seconds, but we know we could still do better.

Our 3rd race was a 500m race, and somehow after the 200m sprint races… this 500m seemed impossibly l-o-n-g.  Our rate was too high, and we struggled.

We came into the 1000m race, knowing we really enjoyed it last year. 

We raced 5 boat heat.  500m, turn around, race 500m back.  Boats proceed one at
at time, 10 seconds apart. 

We were boat #4.  We set a nice easy pace… that allowed us to reach out further.  Pretty soon we were catching up to the boat ahead of us.
We passed boat #3 in this
mini-Guts and Glory race, as we approached the turn, then then passed
the #2 boat on the turn.  We challenged the #1 boat in the lead… in
the final 100m… spooked them
good… and crossed the finish line FIRST!

There are 18 Women's Teams
There are 18 Mixed Adult Teams
We are headed into Mixed Adult C Finals.
First race at 9:15 tomorrow morning.
Mixed Adult C Championahip around 12 noon.
Then we will enter the Water Ski Challenge.

It's a tradition that a picture of team members be taken in the waters of Kalamalka Lake.  Tzhe is on the far left wearing his kilt, followed by Jonas, Dave, Todd, Ernest, Raphael, Jim, Tony and Stephen.  The girls asked the boys to show some leg, and this was the result – just before the boys all fell in the water!  Tomorrow we'll show you a pictures of the Gung Haggis girls in the water! – photo courtesy of Dave/Brooke Samis

Check out our Vernon races from 2007 & 2006

NO PRACTICE ON SUNDAY….
Sorrry…. we tried to work something out… but it didn't happen,.
We will see you on Tuesday 6pm.