Congratulations to those members who competed in Victorian State Teams and Victorian Regional Teams at the Australian National Dragonboat Championships earlier this month!! Heather Watts, Denise McMillan, Heather Fox, Mai Bugg, Kim Costin and Karen Shell joined Brave Hearts Dragon Boat Club, and Mick Curran, Jim Callaghan and Paddy Horgan joined with Beechworth Dragon Boat Club to form composite teams to compete. Ros Biddiscombe and Heather Fox competed in the Victorian State Women’s Senior B team (50-60yrs) in the Victorian Regional team, Mick Curran, Jim Callaghan, Kim Costin, Paddy Horgan, Mai Bugg, & Karen Shell were selected to compete also. Denise McMillan was originally a reserve but was called up and competed also. Don’t ever stop training! 😊

What a great week of paddling for our members! State day was all 500m races plus a 1km turns race. The Vic Regional team won silver in the mixed 20s (with only 19 paddlers), silver in the women’s 10s, gold in the Open 10s, and gold in the combined 1km turns race. Senior B team won a bronze in the women’s small boat. Some members combined with other regional clubs for the club crew races over 200m day 1 and 500m day 2. Brave Hearts entered a women’s small boat and won bronze in both distances in the Oceania Championship. Our men joined Beechworth and paddled for 4 days with them They qualified for several finals but didn’t get on the podium. But just getting to a final against the best in Australia and NZ is a fantastic effort.

I’d like to thank everyone involved for giving me the privilege of training and racing with you all. It was an amazing experience! (*Thank you to Heather Watts for her words and photos) All the results can be viewed here!