Australian Championships Canberra 2019
What a fantastic week we’ve had!!!!! We are so proud of our team.
We also have to congratulate our wonderful juniors who joined other juniors from clubs all over the country, to come together and race with the Aus Joeys. The Joeys brought home several medals including:
Gold in the Mixed 10s 2k,
Gold Mixed 10s 500m,
Bronze women’s 20s 500m,
Silver for the Women’s 20s 2k.
Bronze Mixed 10s 200m,
Bronze Open 10s 2k,
Final results for Brave Hearts at the Aus Champs are:
5th in
Snr C mixed 500
Snr B mixed 2km
Snr C mixed 200
Snr B mixed 200
Snr A women 2k
Prem women 500
6th in
Snr A mixed 500
Snr B open 500
Snr B open 2km
Prem women 2k
8th in
SnrA women 500
SnrA women 200
Prem mixed 500
Prem women 200
10th in
SnrC women 500
Prem mixed 200
13th in
SnrC women 200
17 members of Brave Hearts were also involved in the Regional Victorian team. We were very excited to have this opportunity to represent our state. This team had a very successful campaign coming away with Gold in the Mixed 500m 20s and Gold in the Womens 500m 10s boats and Silver in the Open 500m 10s.
To our amazing volunteers, Sue, Leonie, Meta, Chris and Kevin, you are the people who enable these events to happen, even under some very trying circumstances. We love to see your smiling faces as we go through marshalling, loading boats or wandering around the venue. Thank you for all of your hard work.
Here are some more of Tony’s photos from Sunday – Premier 500m Mixed and Womens and Aus Joeys.
Photo Credit: Tony Purtell
Kellie, Carol and Maxie
Two very happy Coaches
Team Briefing
Our Victorian Regional Representatives
Premier Womens Crew 5th in Aus
Victorian State Championships
We had a huge couple of days at the Victorian State Champs at Nagambie this weekend … 13 placings from 14 categories! Awesome result! A big shout out to our Prems also for placing two thirds and one second in the premier division against some amazing competition. Very exciting!!!!
Women’s sweeps race – 3rd
Senior B open 10s 500m – 2nd
Senior B women’s 20s 500m – 2nd
Premier women’s 10s 500m – 3rd
Senior A mixed 20s 500m – 2nd
Premier women’s 10s 200m – 2nd
Senior B open 10s 200m – 2nd
Senior A women’s 20s 200m – 2nd
Senior B women’s 20s 200m – 2nd
Senior B women’s 10s 200m – 1st
Premier mixed 10s 200m – 3rd
Senior A mixed 10s 200m – 1st
Senior B mixed 10s 200m – 1st
Well done to all Brave Hearts, both paddling and volunteering! Congratulations team on a great weekend!
Brave Hearts take on Docklands
Chinese New Year – Docklands. The year of the pig 
Brave Hearts hit the big city on Sunday 17th February competing at the CNY Regatta in Docklands. With a good turnout of teams and some hard and fast 200m racing, we had a great day.
It was also a treat to watch and enjoy the lion dance at lunch, as part of the celebration of the CNY Festival. Well done CYSM. Congrats to all of our members, paddling and volunteering… results were as follows:
1st – Senior A Open 10s
1st – Senior A Womens 20s
2nd – Senior A Womens 10s
2nd – Senior A Mixed 20s
3rd – Premier Womens 20s
We now set our sights on the Vic Champs at Nagambie in March…only 4 weeks away! Stay tuned
Brave Hearts head to Canberra
Congratulations to our team of Brave Hearts who competed in Canberra today. Great experience as we prepare for the Aus Champs at Easter. Thank you Canberra…we will be back soon…
Results for Canberra
6th out of 8 – women’s crew
4th out of 7 – open crew
3rd out of 7 – mixed crew
Setting our sites high in Falls Creek…
After a month of extremely hot weather it was quite a shock to encounter freezing cold conditions, fog and rain when we competed up at beautiful Falls Creek on the 26th of January. The change in temperature however didn’t deter our team and we had a fantastic day of racing bringing home 6 trophies: 5 firsts, and 1 third. Results were:
First – Premier Women’s 10s (Gold)
First – Senior A Mixed 10s
First – Senior A Women’s 10s (Purple)
First – Senior A Open 10s
First – Survivors and Supporters race
Third – Senior A Women’s 10s (Gold)
The day started off with an 800m tri-point sweeps challenge. This was a first for DBV, and not having done it before we all thought it was a lot of fun. The challenge came however when the fog rolled in and the buoys became hard to spot, making it a little difficult to see the course.
We were extremely excited to have a full 10s crew of Brave Hearts juniors on the water for the first time with Mike at the helm. Not having any other junior crews to race against we were lucky to have the chance for them to race against the Senior A womens crews. Our juniors did such a fantastic job! They were so competitive and their times were amazing! We look forward watching the junior division in Victoria grow over the next few seasons to give our kids a chance to shine against their own. Exciting times ahead!
Well done also to our ladies who competed against 6 other teams in the Survivors & Supporters race taking home the gold. This was a very special moment for Brave Hearts, as we continue to support those touched by a cancer diagnosis.
Our men’s, mixed and women’s crews were also outstanding on the water and we are so proud of everyone who gave it their all to have such a successful day. But we cannot forget our Premier women’s team who fought so hard in all races to bring home a well deserved gold…that made a couple of the junior girls extremely happy:)
5 Golds and 1 bronze
Trying to keep warm
Captains and there trophys
Marshalling
Mel and Maxi
Juniors
Carrum Regatta 2018
It was a huge day yesterday at the Carrum Regatta, lots of teams, lots of racing and….we brought home some bling! Two firsts and two thirds!
Results are as follows:
First – Sen A Mixed 10s 200m
First – Sen A Womens 20s 500m
Third – Sen A Womens 10s 200m
Third – Sen A Open 10s 200m
With 45 races scheduled for the day we started out with the 2km Mixed Sweeps Race. Premiers and Senior A categories saw us with plenty of racing and filling most categories which was fantastic! Everyone did an outstanding job and it was great to see so many juniors competing. Lots of fun! Thanks also to our volunteers for helping out.
Well done Brave Hearts on a great day!
Two first and Two Seconds
Tahlia and Ella
Premiers
Premier Womens Crew
Senior A
Warming Up
Kellie and Cindy
Winning Gold on home waters!
Albury Regatta Success!
Another fantastic day for Brave Hearts on Sunday at the Albury Regatta, coming away with 7 trophies and some amazing “firsts” for paddlers, drummers, sweeps and teams.
Race day saw 56 Brave Hearts paddlers together with volunteers and officials, eager to race and support our club. We were so proud to watch our 15 Brave Hearts Juniors race in two boats, along with 7 other Rapids Juniors, in the first Junior Category Dragon Boats Victoria has ever had. All of the kids did an outstanding job and had so much fun!
Another highlight for the day was watching our full Open Men’s Crew battle it out to take the gold in the 200m final. For some of these men it was their first regatta, and this was the first full Open crew Brave Hearts have had for some time.
We were also so proud to see our very own fitness coach Narelle take on her first race day as a sweep and she did a fantastic job!
Overall we came home with 7 trophies:
Masters Mixed 20s 500m – third
Premiers Mixed 20s 500m – second
Womens 20s 2000m Sweeps Race – first
Masters Open 10s 200m – first
Junior Open 10s 200m (Rapids Blue) – first
Masters Womens 10s 200m – second
Open 20s 2000m Sweeps Race – third
Well done to all of our new paddlers, both junior and senior, on their first regatta and thankyou to every single Brave Heart for the enormous support you showed our team from the beach. That’s what makes this team so special! We now look forward to our Community Regatta on the 11th of November.
Sporting our new jackets
Womens 2km Turn race winning gold.
Womens Master’s 10s 200m
Our Brave Hearts Juniors
Georgia in the drummers seat
Our new level 2 sweep Narelle
Our gold winning Open crew
Gavin and Mike
Open Crew
Success on the water at Nagambie
Nagambie Regatta 9th September 2018
Our first Regatta for the season at Nagambie was an amazing start for Brave Hearts, coming home with two silver medals and one gold! A fantastic effort by all.
The off season training our paddlers undertook certainly paid off, as we fought hard against formidable competition to achieve such great results. We also had five new paddlers competing, including three new juniors, who all paddled brilliantly and had a great day. Suffice to say they are completely hooked!
The day started with a 1000m 20s horseshoe sweeps race; a timed event, lots of fun and a great way to warm up! Then came the 200m races.
Racing in Premiers Women’s 10s, Mixed 10s and Open 10s categories, our Prems did a stellar job against the likes of YRD, Flames and CYSM, earning themselves a spot in a minor final. Our five juniors also got the chance to race with the Melbourne Rapids in two Premier heats and were extremely competitive. Well done everyone.
Our Masters 10s crews were also tested against extremely stiff competition in our Women’s 10s, Mixed 10s and Open 10s races, and we were very excited to earn ourselves a spot in all three finals. Everyone put in an amazing effort and we came through with a silver place in the Mixed 10s and a very close silver in the Women’s 10s, only to miss out on the gold by .3 of a second. Outstanding!
The highlight of the day was watching our amazing crew of Women’s 20s power down the course to earn themselves a spot in the final with a time of 1.03.37. The Final saw them jumping out of the starting blocks, nose in front and in perfect time all the way to cross the finish line with a time of 1.03.32. GOLD, GOLD, GOLD! What a fantastic way to top off the day.
Congratulations to all of our Brave Hearts! Be very proud! Thankyou also to our wonderful volunteers for coming along and supporting us on the day.
We now look forward to the next Regatta, on our lake at Albury/Wodonga on the 14th of October.
1 Gold and 2 Silvers
Womens 20s 200m Event
Womens 20s 200m Event
Group Shot
Rapids heading out for their first event
Kellie and Carol
Our new members joining the fun
1km horseshoe event
Womens 20s Gold winning team
DBV Awards Night
Congratulations to all of our Brave Hearts who won awards at the DBV (Dragon Boats Victoria) Annual Awards Night on Sat 2nd June.
Members of our wonderful Club were finalists in all categories;
• Coach of the Year
• Male Paddler of the Year
• Female Paddler of the Year
• Sweep of the Year
• Junior Paddler of the Year
• Volunteer of the Year
• New Initiative of the Year
Of the seven awards the Club was honoured with the following
• Brendan Maher, Regional Male Paddler of the Year
• Nerida Millward, Regional Female Paddler of the Year
• Mike Beazley, New Initiative, Junior Development
• Terry Deans, Volunteer of the Year
Unfortunately Mike and Nerida couldn’t make it on the night to accept their awards so Julie and Pam kindly volunteered to stand in for the photo.
Well done everyone! We are so proud of you and are very excited for what’s to come in the 2018/2019 season.
Brave Hearts Presentation Night
Congratulations to all of our recipients of awards at our Inaugural Awards Night at the Wodonga Golf Club last night.
Most Improved Paddler – Berna Cudars
Rookie of the Year – Berna Cudars
Coaches Award – Narelle Steinke
Member of the Year 2018 – Diane Edmondson
A very big thank you to our sponsors of these awards:
Brandt Johnson, Collective Communications -Coaches Award
Gavin James, Aussie Web Co. – Junior Acknowledgements
Anaconda Stores- Junior Acknowledgements
JPX2 – Member of Year Award
Congratulations also to our five Juniors – Charlotte, Ella, Matt, Tara and Jim who all received certificates, trophies and a voucher/beanie donated by Anaconda, for their fantastic participation over the racing season.
Also a HUGE thank you to our wonderful volunteers who have generously donated their time to help at various Regattas over the season in many different ways. We appreciate your continued support so much.
Lastly we would like to thank Wodonga Mayor Anna Speedie for joining us on the night and to everyone involved in organising the evening, it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We all look forward to next season.
