The GWN Dragon Boat Festival marks the end of JETAA Toronto’s Dragon Boat season. All season long, paddlers have been practicing for this final competition, and all the hard work payed off.
The two-day festival was on Sept 12-13, a somewhat rainy and cool weekend. Saturday was the better of the two days in terms of both weather and motivation. The Fighting Carps had three 500 dashes, of which two were qualifiers. The other was the championship title for the Education Cup. Although the Carps started off slow in the race, they pulled through for a miraculous .0026 second head lead at the finish line. In fact the race was so close that the other team thought they had won. It wasn’t until the Carps docked and they were told to head to the stage to accept their trophy and medals that they realized that they had actually won.
Sunday was a slightly miserable day due to the cold and rainy weather. But the Carps made the most and tried their best. There were only two races, the first being a qualifier to determine if the Carps made the championship finals or the consolation final. The Carps pulled through with their best efforts and made it to the championship finals.
The last race of the day was the championship finals and after a long weekend the Fighting Carps were ready to end with a bang. It was a tough race, and in the end they placed fourth. It wasn’t exactly what the team was looking to end the competition with, but they still celebrated the win of the Education Cup and cheered to the hard efforts of each and every paddler. It was a great Dragon Boat season with lots of hard work and dedication. Next year will be even better.
(Photos by Nick Jones)(Written by Judy Cerovski)