MANNING River Dragon Boat Club paddlers had a successful campaign representing SW Northern Region State team at the Australian championships held at West Lakes in Adelaide.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The journey began for MRDBC when Joe Iacono, Wendy Orman and Fay Brooks applied for the positions of coach, Assistant coach and manager of the NSW Northern team in late 2021. Their selection meant a huge push to get northern regional paddlers to come and train for the eight two hour sessions held at the Manning River Dragon Boat clubhouse at Taree.
Twelve out of the 28 person Northern Region squad were from the Manning club. The paddlers trained for weeks both at their club training days and Sundays for a two hour gruelling session with coach Joe to prepare for nationals.
John Roetman (paddler), Louise Watson (paddler), Andrea Manticas (paddler), Cassandra Kyle (paddler), Karen Drury (paddler), Wendy Orman (assistant coach/paddler), Maureen Pratten (paddler), Jess Diamoy (paddler), Warren Blanch (male captain/paddler), Fay Brooks (manager), Judi Poole (drummer) and Joe Iacono (head coach) were outstanding ambassadors for the Manning club and were successful in achieving a wonderful outcome for the NSW contingent.
RELATED: Dragon boat competition resumes
Northern Region were successful in claiming a silver medal in the mixed 20s, a silver in the women's 10s, bronze in the opens 10s and a silver in the 1km team pursuit.
The NSW contingent of paddlers who attended the championships also took out the overall trophy in the State V State competition. This is always a hard-fought battle between Queensland, Victoria, and NSW.
