Club Crew World Championships Macau 2010

Just returned from a week of intense world class competition at the recent 7^th Club Crew World Championships in Dragon Boat Racing over in Macau, China. Wow, what an eye opener... even for a second timer!

Retirement only lasted for 2 years since the last CCWC in Penang. Upon answering an SOS and constant niggle from ex-team mates, I trialled for a position in City Dragons Macau squad and managed to secure a spot among the 24. The squad trained for 3 months solid during wintry days and evenings for this event after a long and successful season that began way back in September 2009. This involved cross training with cardio and strength fitness, kayaking, sand dunes running, swimming and bikram yoga. You will know why a little later on.

With me being away for a week, Heidi needed some reinforcements in keeping the kids in check and the best solution was to send them up north. The kids looked forward in flying in a plane again to visit their Pa, Nanna, Great Aunt Margaret, Great Nanna, Paw Paw, Uncles, Aunts and cousins! I sent them on their merry way on the Sunday before I left for Macau as Heidi needed the help in getting the kids, luggage , 2 car seats and herself checked-in.

Packed and ready to roll, well almost... I had sometime to kill in the morning before getting to the airport and fearing the uncomfortable 9 hours on the flight ahead of us I ended up on the table to get much needed neck, shoulder and back massage from my sports massage therapist.  As an elite cyclist, she knows best and knows what areas to target. After the well deserved massage I headed over to OC1's (Clayton P) place to share a cab to the airport. A much quicker and cheaper alternative should I caught public transport or left the car at the long term carpark.

A group of City Dragons had already checked in and we weren't too far behind. We felt special and loved as we had a check-in counter all to ourselves. The flight was good all the way to Hong Kong and I even manager to get in almost 3 movies. I missed the last 30 mins of Shutter Island. Oh well, I'll get it on the flight home. Hong Kong's new airport rocks but the line up at immigration sucked! We had the slowest line in the world, as if the immigration officer was on training wheels. We all re-grouped and got our gear and we headed off on our organised coach to the overnight stay at the Eaton Hotel on Nathan St. Well, almost... Ningus gained the notoriety of accruing the first DC points as he walked off without his luggage while still wearing the free sleeping eye mask from Virgin Atlantic. Man, didn't we feel the change in temperature as soon as we headed out the airport! We checked-in to the hotel and it was not too long that Shortcut (Mariano) gained the next lot of DC points as he somehow manage to check in to 2 separate rooms. Confusion reigned at reception. NFI... My roomy for the tour is OC1. After all the crap cleared up, we head out for a bit of leg stretch and walked towards Mong Kok to check out the local surrounds. The hotel just got renovated not that long ago and it looked reasonably good. Small room but modern. Bed was very comfy. Breakfast was as expected in the Western world. We bussed it to the ferry terminal where we boarded a ferry to Macau. Yes, we had to do all the immigration thing again etc.

A pretty ordinary crossing due to some swells and inclement weather, a few on board looked very green around the gills. After alighting from the air conditioned comfort of the ferry we were hit with the humidity that will confront us for the duration of the tour. Through immigration once again and another line we waited what seemed an eternity for a bus to our hotel. Where we boarded our bus is the actual pit area for the F3 Macau Grand Prix.  Now that was the quickest bus ride to a hotel! Meh, it was merely only 2 blocks away. Hmm we could've walked, but then again, we had bags and it was frigging hot!

Golden Dragon Hotel, one of many casino hotel in Macau. Comes to think of it, majority of the hotels were casinos... The hotel room was more spacious than the Eaton and we had an excellent view. Oddly, the bar fridge was locked! We required a deposit of $300HKD to unlock it. Screw it! The beds were a shocker! It was like sleeping on an ironing board. I asked house keeping for an extra doona but they wouldn't allow. Time to think as the first night proved the bed was a real back killer. I ended up doubling up on the doona and sleep on top with a sheet to cover me. Problem solved!

It wasn't long before we all met up for lunch and we headed for the Sands Casino to the food and beverage area. After lunch we headed out to the race site for a final dress rehearsal to get a feel of the course and the new BuK boats that we will be racing in. Nothing like a down pour to end the day. It was still raining by dinner time and we had weave our way under cover until we reached our destination - African buffet! Azza and Dude (Cristian) decided they would try out their new bed for the night.

Breakfast, hmm... we have left the Western world and moved into the Chinese style. For cereal the options were porridge, some sort of rice bubbles and corn flakes. Congee was there to have as well as steamed buns. Bacon, eggs and beans were available as well as pancakes if they could make enough! They also had all these other sort of hot food available like fried rice, fried noodles and veges.

It was long before we were summoned for a land session down stairs.  We did our usual warm up routine and then we did some sprints to get our cardio going. To finish the session we headed across the road for a 3km run before a recovery session at the hotel pool. Another down pour in paradise and this lasted a lot longer. We stayed at the hotel for a buffet dinner and it wasn't too bad at all. It seems that we just eat on this tour! We had a stretch and pool session on the morning of the 2000m. We headed over to the Sands again for a light lunch before making our way over to the Race Site for our first race of the championships.

Weather: 34degrees with 90% humidity. Wow - another hot and humid day even at 4.25pm, Race Time!

There were two heats for the premier division and we were in Heat 1 with 10 boats in our heat. The 2k race is a time trial race around a 500m course with 3 turns (so it’s essentially longer than 2k) with 12 second intervals between each boat. We managed to overtake a fellow Aussie crew (VADB) at the 1k mark and in the process OC1 and I hit a buoy each me first and then him. It turns out that OC1 pop his shoulder out slightly and toughed it all the way home. Respect! We manage to hold off and not get passed by the fast finishing Germans. We did a personal best time of 9minutes 3seconds. Knocking off over a minute from the National Titles time. Nice work DCs! However, there were 15 other teams that were quicker. The 2 Czech crews filled the first 2 positions with the Germans in third. See results at the bottom. Youtube of the of race - 2000m Race from SRP.

Dinner time and we're off on a protein feast of Brazilian churrasco at the Venetian Casino. The casino complex is massive and apparently it turns over more than Vegas itself! Inside was amazing as they had a man made canal in the complex with real gondolas and singing gondaliers.
  

Friday – 200m heats. With 4 boats in this heat we managed to finish 2^nd and qualified for the semi straight up. Time: 46.600sec. The signs were ominous when the Windsor Arch Jiujang DBT (Chinese crew) went out in the heat after us and ripped up the course in 42.529sec. Absolutely amazing to watch! Obviously they qualified 1^st and ranked 1^st for the semis.

Saturday – 200m Semi/Final. Circumstances happens but that’s racing and the gods weren’t shining for us that day. We ended up in the fastest semi of the day but still managed to pull in a fast time considering our 2^nd best paddler snapped his paddle (made out of kevlar carbon fibre) and we had to carry his 100kg frame all the way. Finished 5^th out of 6 in 46.916sec. Missed the major final by less than 0.6 sec and minor final by less than 0.07 sec. Predictably, the Chinese crew took out the major final by over a second. With some paddlers carrying niggling injuries we bypassed the plate final as we preserved them for the 500m races the following day. We all felt pretty low and robbed of an opportunity. But that's racing... We headed for James Packer's City of Dreams to chill out at the Hard Rock Hotel for a poolside BBQ buffet. Simply awesome venue and food. I told you we just ate. This must the be the best eating tour ever!

Sunday – last day of competition 500m races and things didn’t look too bright for us as there were at least 4 paddlers suffering from gastro. First Heat – tough draw but nevertheless, close finish but only 5^th in 2min 00.988sec. Repechage it is and we need to finish 1^st or 2^nd to progress to the semis. We managed a 2^nd in 2min 00.279sec. So very consistent racing under the circumstances. Semi final time and there’s nothing to lose, we had a crack but the competition was just too good. 6^th placing with another consistent time of 2min 00.481sec. This placed us in the plate final with another Aussie crew (Pacific Dragons) who had a ding dong battle between the two clubs all year in all distances. We were in lane 6 out of sight and out of mind and not expecting to challenge the others for the win. Oh how wrong they were… rather than seeing most crews have a faster start than us all day long, finally we managed to nail the start and shot out with a massive lead. We followed the race plan as we did all day and had an awesome middle part of the race. Pass the half way point, Bear our sweep sensed the other crews were closing in and we put down the hammer for the last 80 strokes or so. The best race by far by us as we hammered home holding off all comers in a photo finish and winning the plate final crossing in 1min 59.516sec. Woohoo! We still hold the title of the fastest aussie premier crew for 200m and 500m. However, Pacific Dragons retains the 2k title.

After all the bad luck we had in the last couple of days, this was the best way to finish this hard campaign. Well… the after party is another story in itself…

The original DCs

Left Macau Monday morning after breakfast hoping to do a spot of camera shopping in Hong Kong with OC1. No luck, the camera I wanted was way too expensive compared to the net. OC1 and I made our way to the airport by the subway and it was a breeze. Why can't we have a system like this back in Sydney??? Time to use up the local currency so I bought the kids some Toy Story 3 watches which they love wearing. Now stop wearing my Polar watch! There were 10 of us returning home first and we're all checked-in and boarded bar one. Ballcrack (Petr B) was missing! Virgin staff put a page out for Ballcrack and asked one of us to call him to see where he was. Alas, Ballcrack last on board and earned more DC points! We left Monday evening and arrived back to a cold, wet and windy Sydney Tuesday morning. Oh joy!

Thanks to Ryan (coach) for giving me the opportunity to trial and make a return to this great team for another crack at the world champs.

Thanks to all the supporters and my fellow DC crew. The effort and the sacrifices we all put in was immense and worth while especially to the all fathers in crew. You guys rock! Lastly, a big thank you goes to my very understanding wife Heidi and the kids Annika and Mitchell for allowing me to partake in this campaign as it doesn't come around too often.

PS. Thanks to Wongy and Dude for sharing the photos. I stole a few!

Race Results

2000m Race

Final

1^st Nymburk Dragon Team (CZE) 8.22.222

2^nd Moravian Dragons (CZE) 8.28.606

3^rd Wann Sea Dragons (GER) 8.29759

7^th Pacific Dragons (AUS) 8.42.800

16^th City Dragons (AUS) 9.03.645

19^th Vietnamese Australian DBC (AUS) 9.56.003  

200m Races

Major Final

1^st Windsor Arch Jiujang DBT (CHN) 44.463

2^nd Nymburk Dragon Team (CZE) 45.133

3^rd Wann Sea Dragons (CER) 45.163

Heat

2^nd City Dragons (AUS)  44.600

Semi Final

5^th City Dragons (AUS) 44.916

Plate Final

DNS

500m Races

Major Final

1^st Windsor Arch Jiujang DBT (CHN) 1.51.744

2^nd Nymburk Dragon Team (CZE) 1.52.404

3^rd Wann Sea Dragons (GER) 1.54.784

Plate Final

1^st City Dragons (AUS) 1.59.516

2^nd South Eagles DBA (HKG) 1.59.556

3^rd Galaxy Stars (MAC) 1.59.5996

4^th Pacific Dragons (AUS) 2.00.696

Semi Final

6^th City Dragons (AUS) 2.00.481

Repechage

2^nd City Dragons (AUS) 2.00.279

Heat

5^th City Dragons (AUS) 2.00.988

DC20

Queen - Alice Steel (drummer)

Azza - AaronDe Sousa

Shortcut - Mariano Castenda

OC1 - Clayton Pickering

AQIS - Michael Ng

Butters - Keith Louie

Mr. Finish - Jiri Rolc

Klaus - Miro Utrata

Bubby - Mark van Uden

Fish - Petr Macoun

Ballcrack - Petr Balcarek

Avatar - Peter Skene

Apple - Juan Arbarca

Chill - Cristian Sepulveda

Dude - Bernie Rojas

Baywatch - Viktor Baldovic

Dazza - Darren Chan

Celine - Dion Taylor

Wongy - Allan Wong

Bangers - Bang Duong

Cleo - Claudio Leondelabarra

Sickbay - Keith Szeto

Bear - Steve Da Costa (sweep)

Mr T - Ryan Chan (coach)

Tour Supporters

Leg breaker - Ines De Sousa

Chichi - Ingrid van Uden

Nurse - Bev Magpayo

Caro - Carolina Carvallo

Now back to dragon boat retirement...