Last weekend Brave Hearts attended the Dragon Boat Victoria hosted regatta at Nagambie Lakes Regatta Centre. This regatta formed the first competition regatta of the season and a welcome return for a Nagambie Dragon Boat event.
Brave Hearts represented Albury Wodonga in four categories over the course of the day; Masters Womens 10s, Masters Mixed 10s, Premier Mixed 10s in 200m races, as well as a Open 2000m Sweeps Race.
Prior to the regatta, learner dragon boat sweeps, Julie and Gavin headed down to the regatta centre to take part in a sweeps accreditation course, and we are pleased to welcome them as new L2 provisional sweeps for Brave Hearts! We are also happy to note that their first regatta was a success, with no incidents taking place.
Our masters’ paddlers showed their dedication to our younger paddlers this Regatta. Charlotte showed us her skills in the stroke seat, and the team raced against strong teams Yarra River Dragons and CYSM.
The premier team applied a lot of pressure against the other teams, and although they didn’t manage to make the finals, they kept the other crews honest and competed well!
The masters women’s crew started the day with an amazing race in heat 1 coming off the starting line strong and finishing the race in first place against Dragon Masters and Geelong Gold.
The masters women’s crew had new sweep Julie in her first regatta for the day. Julie showed excellent skill in backing into the pontoons swiftly, and kept the boat straight though out the race.
Our masters mixed team performed amazing in their first heat, taking out the fastest time for the category and securing their place in the finals. Feedback from the banks was that the start was powerful, strong and the team instantly had the jump on Geelong Silver and Dragon Masters.
The team backed up their solid run and took out 2nd place against Warriors Dragon Boat Club, Geelong Gold and Dragon Masters.
Brave Hearts regrouped for the last race of the day and showed a magnificent effort in the 2km sweeps race competing in the first heat against Golden Dragons Composite and Geelong Dragons. Our team was seeded as the last to start, quickly catching up to Geelong in the first 500m and keeping close on their tail throughout the race.
The race run smoothly, with new sweep Gavin taking control of the sweep’s oar for the 2000m. Gavin kept the boat steady around the turns, and skilfully handled the passing of the Golden Dragons composite crew on the last turn just before the 1500m mark.
Overall Brave Hearts crossed the line second, still on the tail of Geelong, placing the crew in first for the heat when the times came in. Brave Hearts completed the race, breaking the 12 minute mark at 11:40.
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