Montrreal Race 2008 Write up
By Rachel Belino
The Montreal festival race schedule started off with time trials on Saturday: 6 teams in each heat would race two 500 meter distances, one race in the morning and the next in the afternoon. The best time from each team's two races would then rank the teams in each of their respective divisions (men, women, open mixed) for Sunday's finals.
On Sunday, each team would race a 500 meter and a 250 meter final against 5 other teams with similar best times; so the same 6 teams in each division would race against each other twice on Sunday at different distances, one 500 meter and one 250 meter race. Our club's first ever women's team, Heatwave, made a solid race debut this weekend!!
At Saturday's time trials, Heatwave's best time of 2:26.94 ranked the team 24th out of 32 women's teams at the festival. On Sunday, having placed in the Women's Division D finals, Heatwave paddled hard against stiff competition in their 500 meter final placing 6th (2:26.13). However, the team came back later on that day determined to paddle harder and came in 3rd in their 250m final (1:10.28). It was a super close race at the finish with the 2nd place women's team, NY Wall Street Dragons, pulling 1:10.25 and the 1st place, Let's Sink Together, pulling 1:10.00.
Drachenfurie's best time on Saturday of 2:13.20 ranked the team 35th out of 120 open mixed crews at the festival; and placed the team in the Open Mixed Premier Division F finals.
On Sunday, Drachenfurie, battled it out against 5 other teams with best times from Saturday that were miliseconds close; one of which was our familiar rival, Xtreme NY. Even after a shaky and unexpected start, Drachenfurie won their 500m Final earning gold medals! It was a tight and exhilirating finish at the end but the team edged out the 2nd place Team Wookies (2:12.28) by 2.95 inches (thanks Dan T for the calculation) with a time of 2:12.25! Later on in the day, Drachenfurie duked it out again in the 250m Final placing 3rd.
Thanks to the entire club, our paddlers from Harvard Dudley, and paddlers from Living Root and Liaison, for making this weekend a success!!!! Thank you Heatwave for representing the strong women of Boston and breaking new ground for the club!!
Thank you Drachenfurie for building upon our club's mixed crew success as we continue to establish a consistent race record!!
