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Home News Race Reports 2008 Tacoma (Race 4 Inc Points)
Home News Race Reports 2008 Tacoma (Race 4 Inc Points)
2008 Tacoma (Race 4 Inc Points) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Niki Watters   
Saturday, 19 January 2008 10:00

Tacoma, The Entrance. NSW


 January 19th: 

Results
Women's Crew: GOLD (Major Final)
Masters Mixed Crew: BRONZE (Major Final)

Take a trip down to Tacoma and have a gander at the peaceful waters of the Wyong River. Measure out an approximate 400m; add 2 sets of boats, a couple of hundred crazy paddlers, a dash of wind, and a generous portion of sun. Mix vigorously with paddles for 9 hours or so and Voila! A race day fit for dragon boaters! Early on the morning of the 12th of January, the bank of the Wyong River was swarming with brightly coloured dragon boat paddlers. Team DSA turned up on queue and corroborated around and under the brand-spanking-new yellow and blue marquee. With plenty of pride at stake the team captains rallied their crews together before each heat to pump up their paddlers for a great race. Round 1 sees Team DSA warming up, with the mixed masters bringing in a 2nd place, the prem mixed teams paddling into a 4th and a 5th place in separate heats, the women’s and opens crews placing 4th and 5th respectively. After a re-focus the crews hit the water again for Round 2, with some pleasing results. The mixed yellow team improving their placing to 4th, the mixed blue team improving their time, the women’s improving their winning their heat, pipping the green machine at the line, and the opens improving both their time and their placing in their heat coming 2nd. The use of two sets of boats ensured that the racing stuck to its schedule, so no-one was late for their Birthday parties! With every heat being hotly contested, the finals were no different. Both the Mixed masters team and the Prem women's crews made the A finals. First finals held were the masters, where the DSA crew surprised themselves coming home strong to take 3rd place, behind Bei Loon and the Dragon Hunters, with a time of 1:49:99!
Women’s A final was up next and the DSA women were focused on the job at hand; they were out to prove that the last race was not a fluke. With Mavs, Sloths, PD's, Northern Beaches, and CYL making up the final this was the race to watch. The race was incredibly close, with sweeps fighting it out to keep a straight line and find the deep water. The winner was impossible to pick with the human eye, and luckily the photo finish camera was there to save the day. The DSA women surged into 1st place, holding out Northern Beaches by the smallest of margins 0:00:06 of a second.
Not only was 1st and 2nd place decided by the photo finish, but places 1-5 finished within 1:53:34 - 1:53:53.
This victory was a milestone in DSA history, as the women’s crew has never before won a regatta! Trophies were won......... and lost that night and needless to say celebratory drinks were enjoyed by all!
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 14 January 2009 07:14
 

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