The competition is well past the 1/2 way point. Drawing more than 100 teams and 3,700 competitors from 10 nations and regions around the world - teams have come from as far as Germany, Macau, Phillippine, Great Britain, Jamaica, Netherlands, Ukraine, United States, Australia and of course Provincial Canada.
We were at Toronto's Marilyn Bell Park today, a purpose built course, to witness Austalia's assault on the 500m Premier Mixed Championship Races! Could the Aussies bring home a medal? Brisbane River Dragons? Arafura? Or perhaps a certain team from our very own state, the "Slothies"?
Useless Facts:
The 2006 IDBF Dragon Boat Club Crew World Championships are taking place at Toronto's Western Beaches Watercourse in Marilyn Park.
Construction began in September 2005 and was completed in June 2006.
It cost $23 million to build; the "wall" is 600m long and 7m wide at the top; there's 125,000 tonnes of armour stone (each stone weighs the eqivalent of 5 Honda Civics), 27,000 tonnes of filter stone and 63,000 tonnes of core stone.
It required: 6,000 truck loads of materials; 40 employees onsite working around the clock 24 x 7; 9 barges; one 110 tonne crane; one 155 tonne crane; five backhoes; two tug boats and two quarry loaders.
The amount of material used is almost twice the weight on the CN Tower (similar to our Centre Point Tower) .
Go you Slothies! By the way, did you know?
That the Sloths managed to place in the top 5 for all premier races at CCWC 2004, in Cape Town, South Africa.
That their Women's crew won Gold in the 200m event; and their Premier Mixed won 2 silvers in the 200m and 420m events, @ Cape Town.
That the Sloths fielded the following for CCWC 2006:
1. A Premier Opens & a Premier Women's team
2. A Premier Mixed 'A' & 'B' Team
Amazing, huh? Oh, btw, they've got a new uniform. It's still purple though =) but less animalistic.
Who were they up against?
They were up against the best club teams from across North America, Canada and the World. The teams to watch, included:
Kurpfalz Dragons, from Mannheim, Germany - are one of the very first German teams to get involved in the sport of dragon boating. They won 4 medals at the 2004 CCWC.
The Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association has earned the right to represent the US-of-A in the last 6 World Dragon Boat Championships.
False Creek Racing Canoe Club, from Vancouver, Canada - are perhaps the most well known team. Their most renown Women's crew winning 5 Gold medals from Hong Kong.
Pickering Dragon Boat Club, from Pickering, Ontario, Canada - has representatives from their National Dragon Boat Team as well as Olympic athletes. Coming 1st in the 2002 CCWC at Rome and then again in 2004 at Cape Town.
Makes you wonder doesn't it? How well could A.C.C.A. have done, had we turned up at these races.
The Club Crew World Championships (CCWC) is for competitors who represent their own Dragon Boat club or crew. They do not represent their country but race under their club (crew) name and colours.
On a warm sunny day, I met up with Zeus from team "Slothies" for a quick chat. He came out of the tighly secured Athlete's Village, after having just completed a race. Pacing back and forth near the scoreboard and chatting with Frawley (NSW Head Coach), the two were trying to figure out their team's overall time and placing. Would it be enough to put them into the Finals. Let's hope so.
Zeus painted a picture of a very hard day at the office. Sadly they failed to capture any medal at the previous days 200m Championships and today's racing didn't look to be any easier. Oh, in case you were wondering, yes they did make the finals - Sloths 'B' made it into the Premier Mixed Minor final and Sloths 'A', the Grand Final.
These races are unlike anything I've ever seen before. They are, for lack of a better word, "extremely exciting and ultra competitive". The Slothies final placings, in their respective races, will give you an idea of what I mean but more on that later. For those of you lucky enough to have raced against the Sloths or the Brisbane River Dragons, even... will know what I mean. Especially knowing that over the past couple of, sometimes cold but mostly nippy Winter months, the Sloths had up'd their training schedule to yet another level. If that is at all possible. We who were also there on the water, salute you.
After a very long day, both Brisbane River Dragons and Sloths 'B' finally line up in the Premier Mixed minor finals. Ummm, not too sure about BRD (apologies) but the Sloths came in 5th, in a time of 2:05. The winning time was 2:02. Making them 10th overall.
As previously mentioned, Sloths 'A' made it into the Grand Finals. Congratulation Slothies! But was beaten to the finish line by some better teams on the day. They too finished 5th, in a time of 2:02. You'll be happy to learn that the winning team broke the magical 2 minute barrier.
To everyone who competed on the day, a heart felt Congratulations!
Unfortunately, we won't be attending the last day of the race programme but FYI, the Sloths will be competing in the Open's and Women's category. We wish them luck!
Images have been posted into the photo gallery, please click the following image to view.
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The Club Crew World Championships (CCWC) is for competitors who represent their own Dragon Boat club or crew. They do not represent their country but race under their club (crew) name and colours. 
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