Posts under ‘Events’

Day One:
The British Dragons Singapore team arrived at Day One of the MR500 regatta at Lower Seletar Reservoir with a point to prove, and walked away with an enormous amount to be proud of heading into Day Two. Every British Dragons crew that raced on Day One made a final race – two grand finals and one minor final, beating a number of traditional race day foes including many expat teams and strong university teams. The Premier Mixed 22 Crew, Expat A Boat and Expat B boat paddled longer, harder and deeper than ever over a shortened 400m race to produce some of the team’s most complete performances.

Mixed Premier Crew – In the first race of the day for the British Dragons, the Mixed Premier crew woke up its competitors with a spectacular 50m final surge to take first place by about a third of a boat length, over a second ahead of their nearest rivals. They repeated the feat with another outstanding charge in the semis to come second by a whisper, slicing three seconds off their heat time to record 1:48:0 the team’s fastest time of the day – and beating one of Singapore’s best university teams by 0.7 of a second in the process. Though the crew didn’t medal in the grand final, the British Dragons were the ONLY Singapore expat team make the medal race against very strong uni squads – a tremendous achievement for the first race meet of the year.

Expat Community Mixed Crew – The Brits A boat’s unwavering focus, maintenance and strong line charges to win by nearly a second in their heat at 1:53:4 and storm into the expat category grand final where they eventually took silver – and the team’s first medals of the weekend. Victory over many of last year’s leading crews was the icing on the cake in the expat category for the Brits.
The Brits B boat showed guts on the water, starting with a strong heat against three A-boats and recording a speedy 1:54:6 time. After a fantastic race in the minor final, the B boat suffered a heartbreaking loss on the line to our international regatta partners, the German A team, by just 0.1 of a second. The crew also beat a A-team competitors on the way through to the minor final, showing that once again the Brits will be setting the bar for expat crews in 2013.

Day 2:
With a taste of bling on Day One, the Brits arrived bright and early looking to continue a run of smashing form.
Four crews raced on Day Two: Premier Ladies A, Premier Ladies B, Inter-Club Open and Senior Open (better known as The Old Farts… later proven to be the Fast Farts!). The exceptional performances from Day One spilled into Day Two – three of the crews went on to race in grand finals.
Ladies A and B crews – For the first time, the British Dragons entered two ladies boats in the field – a sure sign of the Brits’ traditional strength in ladies events and of strong competition for the year ahead. After earning the right to race again after their heat, Ladies B turned in a gutsy and vastly improved repechage race.
The fantastic performances of several lady paddlers in their first regatta bodes well for 2013. Ladies A boat kicked off their campaign with a strong win in their first heat. The British Ladies remained cool to cross the line in convincing first place. Though the British Ladies didn’t medal in the grand final, the Brits are now just two seconds away from the fastest crew in Singapore in only the first meet of the year. This is something to celebrate! And a very achievable goal for our outstanding ladies paddlers this year. With race-hardened experience and a rising set of newly-blooded paddlers, competition for ladies boat seats promises to be fierce for May’s DBS regatta.

Senior Open Crew – The Senior Open crew didn’t let two near-starts-interrupted-by-the-weather crack their composure, turning in excellent performances despite a full dance card of final races as part of other crews. The newly-christened ‘Old Farts’ boat proved themselves to be anything but, placing second in their heat and heading straight into the grand final. Race rules stipulated that paddlers must be forty, which of course was difficult to prove given everyone in the ‘senior’ crew looks and paddles like they are 21 years old. One crew member was even interrogated by race marshalls – and disbelieving teammates later – about his age. The broken schedule was no issue as the Fast Farts paddled their way to a very respectable fourth in the grand final…
Inter-Club Open – …. only to line straight back up in the next grand final boat! In what became a recurring theme, Brits continually lined up for final races, sometimes back to back, and maintained both mental and physical stamina throughout – a testament to our coach’s rigorous race training regime. The gents got their chance to shine in the Inter-Club Open, posting the fastest time for the Brits of 1.48 over 400m in their heat to earn their place in the grand final. Competition was extremely strong in the Inter-Club with hardened expat, university and community crews doing battle.
That didn’t stop the men’s team walking away with a hard-fought bronze medal for their efforts after a truly spectacular line charge that left supporters hoarse, and charted the beginning of a very strong men’s crew for 2013.
Congrats gentlemen!

Race Weekend Stats:
7 boats entered in 20-crew and 10-crew races
5 grand final races, 1 minor final race
Silver medal (Expat Community)
Bronze medal (Inter-Club Open)
Guts, glory, sunburn, aching muscles (everyone)

Anna Hamill

All the MR500 results can be found at: http://sava.com.sg/mr500.html

The annual International SAVA Sprints took place on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of September at Lower Seletar Reservoir and saw the British Dragons take home a haul of medals in this 250m event.

In the “Premier Mixed” race on the Saturday we raced through the heats and came first in a dead heat with the American Dragons in the repechage (with a time of 1:13:93). We subsequently made it through to the Minor Final to take FIRST place with a time of 1:12:87.

We also fielded a crew in the “Singapore Expatriate Community” event and again qualified for the Minor Final to take another FIRST place with a time of 1:12:63.

Sunday saw the “Premier Women” event and the British Ladies battled through to the Grand Final winning a well deserved BRONZE with a time of 1:21.95 (narrowly beaten by the Filipino Dragons and Singapore Polytechnic who took first and second place respectively – by being a mere fraction of a second ahead!).

As always the SAVA Sprints provided some very competitive paddling, the traditional downpour (and disco dancing in the rain!) and the chance for several new team members to compete in their very first races and win medals. All in all it was a great weekend and was followed by a most enjoyable Race Dinner at RedDot Dempsey.

Thanks to all of the British Dragons team, supporters and friends who turned up on Saturday the 25th August to cheer on our squad competing in the SDBA/AustCham 10Km Challenge.

First the result: The British Dragons took 6th place overall (out of 27 boats) with a time of 53:00:66.  Amongst the “International” Community boats we came second.  Our warmest congratulations to the German Dragons who were first to cross the finish line amongst the “International” teams (and beat us to 5th place with a lead of 56 seconds).

Our eager squad of 18 paddlers (plus our cox Winsor) assembled at 1.00om for registration and to ready the boat for what proved to be a scorching hot afternoon. This included draining the for’ard compartment of some 40+ litres of water – which would have been quite a lot of ‘dead’ weight to paddle around the 10Km course! Then it was the gulping down of plenty of water, sucking on gels and chomping on energy bars followed by a warm-up and team briefing before we paddled the red boat aound the bay to the waters adjacent to the new National Stadium to line-up with the other teams where we had been assigned the 18th “lane” for a simultaneous start.

With 27 boats the “start line” extended for well over a hundred metres and the starter horn (when it came) led to much splashing and locking of paddles as we jostled for position with the boats hemmed in to us on either side. The frenzy to break clear for open water continued for at least the first 1Km and we then settled down into the traditional British long stroke as Winsor strategised and called for the various well-practisedtechniques which would see us pull up to other boats and slowly overtake and pull away. Good strategy and technique was also required at each turn as this also offered us good opportunities to jockey for position and leave rivals paddling in our wake.

The course took us out to the Marina Barrage then under the Benjamin Sheares Bridge to the Merlion area of Marina Bay, around past the Promontory and then on to a return leg in front of Marina Bay Sands and back out to the Barrage. Along the way we were cheered on by our unflagging supporters – some of whom even cycled from vantage point to vantage point to shout encouragement and take snaps.  For over half the race the Australian team were well ahead of us and had paddled valiantly to retain their lead.  But as we passed the Art-Science Museum we summoned our energies for a sustained bout of long powerful pulls and slowly but surely we eventually came abreast of them and then seat-by-seat pulled ahead and overtook – a lead we kept and increased as we powered to the finish line at the Merdeka Bridge – and another knot of supporters waving and cheering overhead.

Our congratulations to Mountbatten CSC who took first place in the 10Km Challenge with a time of 48:12:46. Not only that but one of their paddlers actually made a proposal of marriage to a team mate during the race – and was accepted! Let’s hope that the lovebirds were actually sharing the same seat otherwise all of that scrambling around in the boat with the ring would have doubtless cost them quite a few seconds in the race… (“Do you want the bailer?” “No, I’ve dropped the ring – it’s just under that can of 100Plus I think…”, “Er, we’re in a 10K mate and the other boat’s just 4 seconds behind, can you just paddle?”).

Anyway it was certainly a memorable event for all concerned and proves that hard work and a commitment to training will certainly pay off with an impressive and confident showing on the day.

Finally our thanks to SDBA and AustCham for organising this fixture which gave over 500 men and women the chance to compete in such an exciting and unique endurance “battle” around the Marina Bay Reservoir. Well done to our paddlers, cox, captains and coach – and of course our wonderful team mates and friends who came along and showed their great support and pride in the team on the big day!.

(Thanks to Natalia for the splendid photography)