MANNING River Dragon Boat Club enjoyed great success at the Great Lakes Pearl Dragons Dragon Boat regatta at Elizabeth Park, Forster.
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The Mighty Manning Team Spirit outshone every other team. The camaraderie was amazing with so many new paddlers who have come on board with the experienced team members.
The team welcomed new paddlers, Jacquie O'Neill, Sara Lette and Peter McKay and paddlers who had only just completed the recent Learn2Paddle program with the club, Ellana George and Kim Doulman.
It was also the first full participating 2-day regatta for Campbell, Craig, Joy and Yvonne.
Paul Frankham and Meaghan O'Riley both completed their first two races that are required before achieving the next level of sweeping accreditation. It was extremely challenging for them under the rough and windy conditions that prevailed at Elizabeth Park on Sunday afternoon, but they were both successful. A feather in their cap and soon to be more qualified sweeps (steerers) for the club.
On Saturday the team started with the 500m mixed races and came in a close 5th to just miss out on the finals with 15 teams competing.
The 'crème de la crème' event for the weekend for Triple M (Manning River Dragon Boat Club) was the 2km turn race which was held after the 500m races starting at 2pm on the Saturday.
Triple M have been training hard for the 2km race and put it all together on the day. The start was as planned with each boat having a 20 second gap on the next boat. Triple M was sent out last with 60 seconds lapsing between them and the first boat to leave.
Warren Blanch steered with aggression and performed perfect turns. The team stayed with the race plan that they had been practising and refining at training sessions since the previous regatta at Port Macquarie in August. They overtook the Kempsey River Rats on the second turn and then passed Port Stephens on the third. As Triple M headed into the last leg ready to put the two rate rises into action they only had team left to pass, Dragons On The Rocks.
The team absolutely powered across the finish line in a time of 11.48.91 beating 14 other teams (28 seconds ahead of the second team's time Ryde Riders). To say Triple M absolutely nailed it, shattering their training times by more than 30 seconds was an understatement.
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Sunday was a full day of 200m races. All paddlers put their heart and soul into the day giving their best efforts in every race, and we are so proud of you all.
The results of Sunday racing were:
- Sports women 20s 2nd out of 15
- Sports men 10s ( the only team with 9 men paddled remarkably coming in 2nd in their second heat.
- Sports mixed 20s 2nd out of an amazing 18 teams
- Sports women 10s 1st place with 3 seconds between themselves and second.
The club is absolutely brimming with pride at the amazing depth of talent with all the paddlers in the club.
The paddlers train on the Concept 2 rower, the paddle adapter Concept 2, the single out riggers and do push ups and planks at every training session. The coaching team is delighted with the positive attitude that both new and experienced club members have towards the training sessions.
"Everyone works so hard as they know the outcomes of their hard work is fitness, well being and sometimes great results at local regattas,'' a member of the coaching team said.
Manning River Dragon Boat Club looks forward to welcoming new members into their ranks and hope that they will contact the club and come along to the next Learn2Paddle program starting soon.
