Gung Haggis dragon boat team posing for the photographer, who had jumped on a Chase boat, and had to shoot with a telephoto lens.
Fun but W-E-T Saturday at the races…
and the rain stopped…
and the SUN did come out…
– but so did the hail – after the races – while waiting for the award ceremonies.
Award for Gung Haggis Fat Choy team came early at 11:00am
during special opening ceremonies with Burnaby City Councilor Paul McDonell – who presented a special award
from Lotus Sports Club
– The Community Spirit Award
–
for contributions by Gung Haggis team over the years to bring community
spirit to the Lotus races… and help fundraise for the Bill Alley
Memorial scholarship fund.
Unfortunately, a boat turned over in the Silver Final, and paddlers ended up in Barnet Inlet, and needed to be rescued.
Special thanks to ex-paddlers and friends who came to paddle with us – as we were short paddlers.
1st race – we started strong – (with a guest drummer) – but our rate was high, and we fell into 4th of 4 teams.
2nd Race
– Good start – we stayed close to the leader, and came 2nd – (we moved Tzhe to drummer)
Gold
Final – (B Division equivalent) Good start – with 8 borrowed paddlers
and drummer from Lotus Junior, Ft. Langley, + Abreast in a Boat teams –
but some minor timing problems, and we came 4th – but not far behind.
Mixed Adult B – Better race – good start –
Gung Haggis team paddles out to the Mixed Adult B race…. with guest paddlers and guest drummer.
All
in all – a good day… The French paddlers on our team enjoyed
themselves, and were glad they came. Team mates got to know each other
better. And 7 of our rookie paddlers
are now baptized into dragon boat races! Woo-hoo!
Aidan and Eric have now done more races than practices!