2 June 2014: Sun Life Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships 2014 |
While the Stanley Championships have continued to grow in size every year – particularly in the Mixed division, where there were 191 teams this year – the elite Men’s A Cup remains a fairly exclusive Club, with only 12 teams competing for the big cup. You’d think that would make it easier, but you’d be wrong.
Lining up for our first heat at 10:15 in scorching heat (35 degrees), we didn’t know what to expect. Of course we had a battle plan (30 start, transition, chug to the line) and we knew what to focus on (form, power and timing). But what to expect of our competitors? It was clear that the Royal X would fight hard to defend their trophy and although we knew from Lamma and DWB that we could beat them over 500m, we hadn’t raced them over the short distance.
But there was no time to ponder, as the starting gun went off and we raced towards the large crowd on the beach. As we crossed the line the picture became clearer. Not only were we beaten by the X Men and the Yankees, but both the Sea School Old Boys and their team of young kids had arrived ahead of us. P5. Not quite where we wanted to be.
Our dream of the Stanley Championship was obviously in tatters by now. But the mood of the crew remained buoyant – it was a brilliant day, it was Stanley and maybe some weight had lifted off our shoulders. We would simply go out there and give it our best one more time.
There was no point in fighting or arguing or filing a protest, as it would not have led to an improvement in our position. We were not fighting for the Championship at this stage, just an outside possibly for a spot on the podium. In the end we were still fourth overall, despite the P8 in the final heat. But we had no interest in collecting a third runner up trophy and thus retreated to our junk and ice-cold stash of Singha fuel.
But the mood of the crew was anything but glum. All Sailors seemed to have enjoyed themselves, coming together as a team to competing at such a fierce and ferocious level in what must clearly rank as the biggest and craziest dragon boat event on the planet. And there is plenty of confidence and self-believe in the team that we can – and will – one day win that trophy for Liechtenstein!
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