With 10 companies participating, at the water front of Docklands, on a beautiful 27 degrees day with the hot sun shaded by light clouds and a light cool breeze, it was a wonderful day to have a dragon boat race! I have never participated in one... not that I actually took part to row this time around, but doing my thing with the camera. It was an amazing event for me personally and ironically because I originally come from Hong Kong where dragon boat race is a seasonal event! :P
It was a short course of about 2 minutes run, 20 rowers in the boat working with a drummer in front and a steerman at the back. The team from NAB, called the NAB P&C Pirates, was 24 people strong, most if not all first timers who knew little about dragon boat. All they had was one training lesson on Monday, by the international dragon boat commentator, Jonathan Mayne (inset with our beautiful drummer, Kate), for an hour or so and then another hour just before the actual race 2 days later (Wednesday, 25 November 2009).
Last year, NAB came last in this race... Therefore, this year, everyone turned up not expecting much, with minds set on having a good time, and a good old Aussie attitude of, having a fair go. To everybody's surprise, the Pirates came first in the first heat! And then again, NAB came first again in the second heat coming up with a combined time good enough to be in the final! Already on cloud 9, NAB didn't lose sight of the goal and saw a glimpse of the glory, it surprised everyone, perhaps apart from the trainer Jonathan Mayne (who told me he saw something special when he met the team), the Pirates once again produced an amazingly strong final performance and came out second, just 3.16s behind the race winner BECA, proudly taking out the second prize!
What a fantastic achievement! Well done!!
(Despite the petite size of our drummer, Kate, this girl can shout! I can only hear her from the other end of the pier as all the teams sped down the course.)This fantastic result came albeit some very strong competitors in the race, namely BECA that trains regularly and competitively in this sport.
Here are a few frames of the 4 finalists crossing the finish line. You can just see the tail of BECA on the left side of the frame. Look at how close the 2nd, 3rd and 4th were! NAB Pirates on lane 3, KBR on lane 1 came aggreesively from behind towards the end to overtake Lend Lease on lane 4 and took out 3rd place leaving Lend Lease in 4th place.
Click here to find out more about Jonnathan Mayne. FYI, he has 38 Australian Championships under his belt todate and is the corporate event director of Dragon Boats Victoria. What an incredible man!
As I research for links and information about Jonathan Mayne, I found out Jonathan is a Christian. He attributed some of his success to his patient and encouraging attitude.
“I've been Australian champion many times, been to the Olympics, travelled the world, even got taken to a church service in an aeroplane once. Being a Christian is never boring. If you know deep in your heart that God loves you and you're forgiven, it brings with it a whole new world in that God loves you just as you are.”
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 37:23, "If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm"
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