DRAGON BOATING SUCCESS

Last Sunday, two Darfield High School (DHS) Dragon Boating Teams competed in the South Island Secondary School (SISS) Dragon Boating Regatta at Lake Ruger, an irrigation lake in Eyrewell. Following on from last year's success with a ten paddler crew, this year DHS were able to field two teams. They had a twenty paddler girls crew with a mix of last year's team members and some new members, and a ten paddler mixed crew made up of first time Year 10 students. Weekly training started at Lake Rua, in Christchurch, at the beginning of the term leading up to the SISS Champs. The teams showed great resilience coming up against more experienced teams with older students. Each team started with a 1km time race, where schools were set off fifteen seconds apart, having to complete two laps of a 500m circuit. Both our teams managed to pass crews, with our twenty paddler team finishing in third place in the Girls Grade, and our mixed crew narrowly missing out on third place in the 10 Grade. Onto the 500m sprints, with one heat each and times to be used for finals, our twenty paddler team finished fourth, with our ten paddler team finishing first in the B Final.

The 200m sprints were just a straight out slog with two heats and the average time being used for finals. Our twenty paddler team got off to a great start and led all the way until about the last 20m and were overtaken by Rangi Ruru, finishing a well deserved second place. Our ten paddler team finished first in the B Final, showing great consistency across all races. A huge thank you to our Sweepers who put up with us for the last seven weeks - Evan and Cam - you guys rock! Also, thanks heaps to Jo Beswick for all your help with the team this term.

Thanks to all the supporters for a fantastic day. We can't wait to do it all again in 2024.

Pip Deans, DHS Sports Co-ordinator.