Tom Parry
EVEN in their “off-season”, the Gippsland Water Dragons still have reason to smile.
The local dragon boat club is still on a high after its members participated in the National Dragon Boat Championships, or AusChamps, held on April 20 to 24 in Wodonga.
Five club members were selected as part of the Regional Victoria team in the state vs state competition: Jim Callahan, Mick Curran, Heather Fox, Paddy Horgan and Jenny Hurley.
Additionally, club president Heather Watts was selected as assistant coach of the team, and a “reserve sweep” for the Senior C state team.
According to Watts, the members who garnered selection were initially apprehensive about nominating for the team, believing they weren’t good enough.
“The club’s only been going a couple of years, and some of our paddlers … have only been paddling less than two years, so they were sort of like, ‘Oh, are we gonna be good enough?’” Watts explained.
“So I encouraged them, and I said ‘Yes, you’d be surprised, you will be good enough.’”
Joining the regional team required “a lot of dedication” from paddlers, who trained with their fellow Victorian representatives at Mount Beauty, meeting three times over the span of four months.
They were also required to continue training with their local club, do gym sessions, and send recorded footage of their paddling abilities to their regional coach, who would in turn assess their technique.
Photo: Contributed
The state vs state competitions took place on a Saturday (April 22) in “the most beautiful weather”.
The Regional Victoria Mixed team placed first all three rounds of their division to win the Gold medal, while the women’s team won their two rounds to earn the same accolade.
The Regional Victoria squad also won the one-kilometre team pursuit, beating their nearest rival by a margin of 10 seconds.
This was despite fierce competition from their rivals in New South Wales and Queensland, who benefit from having more waterways and warmer weather.
Arguably, nobody is happier of the Water Dragons’ achievements than Watts.
“They absolutely blitzed it,” she said of their efforts.
“We’re punching above our weight, and I’m really proud of the whole club … it was a nice reward for all the work that the club, as a whole, have put in over the past couple of years.”
There is even talk of one of the Water Dragons, Jim Callahan being selected for the Auroras – the national Dragon Boat team that represents Australia at worldwide events.
Watts is hoping that Callahan will nominate: “I think he’s got a very, very good chance of being selected.”
Taking place at Wodonga’s Gateway Park, the 2023 AusChamps event saw of 3000 Dragon Boaters participate, representing 72 different clubs from across the country.
While the Water Dragons didn’t submit a team for the club categories, Callahan and Curran were “borrowed” by the Beechworth Golden Dragons to assist their squad, which placed third in the Senior A Mixed finals.
Photo: Contributed
The club will return to competitive events in October, when the Australian Masters Games takes place in Adelaide.
“It’s a bit of an awkward time for Dragon Boating, because it’s actually at the very beginning of our season, so it remains to be seen how fit everybody (will be),” Watts said.
“But we’ll have a bit of intensive training in the month leading up to it, so we should be okay.”
For more information about the club and its upcoming events, head to www.revolutionise.com.au/gipwaterdragons
