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Aoraki Dragon Boat |
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Team Profile:Shirley Boys High SchoolThe Shirley Boys are a team tha tlike the big events. In 2007 they represented NZ at the World Champs in Sydney, then as the “New Zealand Junior Open team” were the sole kiwi crew to compete at the 2009 World Champs at Racice, a small village 60km north of Prague in the Czech Republic. Racing at Racice was on a purpose built rowing course which had one month earlier hosted the World Under 23 Rowing Championships so there was no doubt as to the quality of the race course. Some 3055 competitors in 134 crews from 25 countries raced in various Divisions over a five day programme. Shirley raced over four different distances and performed with great credit, especially when considering that all our opposition were selected from throughout their respective countries, whereas our crew was selected just from Shirley Boys’ High School. Racing opened with the 2,000 m race which sees the crews started every 12 seconds and competing 2 laps of the course. We did remarkably well to make up 23 seconds on the Australia 2 crew in the first 400m. We were just short of achieving an overlap as we entered the turn but had to wait until the next straight before we could overtake - this drop in pace definitely cost us at least one place. The Czech crew caught us after the first lap on their way to victory, but no other crew passed us. An eventual ranking of 6th saw the boys reasonably angry as they had wanted better, but their time was 42 seconds quicker than they had ever raced the distance before. An extremely creditable result. The following day - the 1,000 m - was a gut-buster, with a potential three races in 3 hours. We had boys unable to paddle due to sudden illness. If we won our heat we would go straight to the GF but were beaten by less than a second by Canada. In the Semi we finished third behind Singapore and the Czech Republic. The boys struggled manfully in the Minor Final, enjoying a good start and leading for a long time, but were finally run down by the USA and beaten by 0.04 seconds! A ranking of 8th meant we had equalled our 2005 Sydney result. Next was the 200m sprint and for the first time ever, we won a heat (in 52.056) and went straight to the GF. In spite of the fact that we had different boys ill this day, we were in a positive mood. Singapore blitzed the field winning by 2.5 seconds but the next four boats finished within 1.2 seconds. Again the boys were initially disappointed with their 5th placing, but when considering who they finished behind and the fact they beat Poland who had won the 1000m title, they were eventually very happy to again improve on the Sydney result and be less than 1 second from a medal. In summary, an excellent effort from a group of Shirley Men, competing at an elite world level. They gained improved placings in three out of the four events when compared to Sydney and while it was always going to be a difficult task to medal, the boys were never far from that point. In a series of close races, every distance was won by a different country with our crew being ranked in 5th place overall when comparing crews who raced over all four distances. |
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10-mar-10
(c) Noel Anderton |
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