July 31/August 1, 2004: Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races 2004 |
The Liechtenstein Princely Navy put the tiny landlocked Principality on the international dragon boating map, winning its first race ever since competing in Stanley for the first time in 2000.
This time it was the 2-day HK International races in Sha Tin. It was the Navy's first international competition and first 500m race. Conditions were awful; minimal training, 2 sailors short, a few "little girls" around, and, oh, filthy (do chicken remains fall under this category?), murky waters of the Shing Mun River as the battleground (fish were jumping aboard the princely boat in hope of a better life ashore and plenty of Fosters). In spite of this all, a short, effective, and very professional like stretching exercise and plenty of team photos together with the traditional "Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein" screams made us all battle ready in no time. And with our photos taken by the official race photographer and lots of interest from passersby, even the Filipino team in the booth next to ours seemed intimidated and concerned by our early morning display, asking around about this so far unknown opponent scheduled to race them in the early round. We have made our mark!
Anyways, with little preparation we lined up for race number 35, heat 2. After the usual pronunciation lesson to race officials we took possession of boat number 2 to practice our starting sequence and paddle to the starting line. A long wait for boat number 8 and a very long while to get all boats in formation, though irritating, only sharpened our senses. This time we were ready! At last, we got the OK signal and off went the gun subsequently, followed by explosive 5-5-10 strokes from the Princely Navy. It was the synchronized and powerful effort, paddle in paddle out, that left the competition behind. We did kick some serious dragon boat ass; a victorious first place for the Navy in 02:21, a place in the finals and a sweet win over the HK Japanese Club. WOEHAAA!
Race number 56 - Open International Bowl Championship, Grand Final was supposed to be our race. A great start in boat 0, well coordinated performance and measured power up calls put the Liechtenstein Princely Navy ahead of the pack after 300m. We were the favorites at this point but eventually only managed a sixth place in 02:37 as the long wait in the sun and lack of stamina started to take its toll.
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All in all, a valuable experience for the Navy in preparations for the IDBF World Championship in Shanghai and a great publicity stunt as the only European Team and having been featured on TVB. Maybe it's about time to start merchandizing the Navy? Who wants a bedside lamp in red, blue and yellow? How about a placemat? Just a thought.
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