A local Dragon Boat club with a strong Burnaby connection is gold-rich following a big medal haul at the ninth International Dragon Boat Federation club crew world championships in Ravenna, Italy last weekend.
The Dragon Zone One West boat, including Burnaby/New Westminster paddlers Andrew Sugianto, Anthony Cao, Benson Nguyen, Carmen Tam, Carol Leung, Cherry Chen, Derek Tam, Joe Ku, Paige Misfeldt, Shane Beaton and honorary member J.Z. Lee, who was unable to attend due to visa restrictions, won four medals at the worlds, including a pair of gold medals in mixed and women’s race finals at the 200-metre distance.
One West placed first in the premier 10-women small boat grand final, edging out runner-up All Sports from Hannover, Germany by half a second with a winning time of 55.001.
Dragon Zone’s premier mixed team also won the 20-person standard boat grand final over Hannover in a time of 44.041 in a tight two-boat race to the wire that was settled by less than one-tenth of a second.
At the longer 500m distance, the One West women’s and mixed teams finished runners-up to the German All Sports team in the premier women’s small boat and mixed standard boat grand finals.
Both 500m finals were equally close with Hannover winning both race finals by approximatley one second or less.
In the premier mixed division, a New Dragons Racing Club team from Toronto placed third behind Dragon Zone by almost two seconds.
“Going into the club crew world championships in Ravenna we had no idea what to expect, especially for women’s small dragon boat, an event we entered into halfway during the season and had never even competed in locally,” said Misfeldt in an email from Europe.
“I have to give props to our coach, Rob Magus, for the amount of work he put into designing a training program tailored specifically for (the worlds).”
The purpose of all the rigorous two-hour gym workouts and rainy outrigger canoe sessions done in practice became clear to the Dragon Zone crew as they worked their way through the heats.
“I am so proud of my teammates for pushing themselves though the gruelling process and constantly supporting each other along the way,” Misfeldt said. “When you dragon boat, you don’t just join a team, you join a family, and to have all our hard work pay off on an international level just means the world to me – one team. One West.”
To stream Dragon Zone races, click on link below:
