The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Dragon Concherers successfully defended their A divisional title in the second annual Bahamas Dragon Boat Racing competition in Goodman’s Bay yesterday and they are already talking about coming back next year for a three-peat.

While they celebrated their two-straight, there were a number of first time winners, including B champions Mushu Dragons, C champions King Tide, D champions Breezes Dragoneers, E champions IV League and F champions MediDragons.

The two intense days of sailing, held from Saturday to Sunday, also crowned the Naval Destroyers as the open 500m champion, Phoenix Dragoneers as the Youth 200m champions and Bustin’ Free as the Seniors 400m champions.

The series of races drew a large crowd of spectators who got to hear from ‘Da Party Animal,’ Stiletto, as well as participate in a junkanoo rush out as the organisers of the Bahamas Chinese Dragon Boat Racing Association brought the curtain down on another successful event.

In defending their A title, Aaron Chea said the Dragon Concherers said they didn’t want to leave any stones unturned as to who will be the champions again.

“All of our practices together really showed in what we did today,” he said. “We came out here hoping for best. We came out here with the expectations to win and it was manifested in our performances. So we are happy to win it again.

Chea said just in case their challengers have any ideas of dethroning them next year, Chea said they will have to do it in the water because “we are going for three straight titles.”

Chief Petty Officer Andy Deveaux said as a team coming from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, they own the waters, so it was a natural fit for them to win.

“It was awesome. We got on everybody and told them that we had to rely on our endurance as our strength,” he said. “We’re used to enduring to the end. The race, like the Bible says, is not for the swiftest, but who endureth to the end.

“This is our first time here. We got the information late, just 10 days before the competition. Can you imagine what we would have done if we had more time to practice. But we will be back next year. We will have more time to prepare our team.”

David Rolle, a senior immigration officer of the Bahamas Immigration Department, noted that their Mushu Dragons are delighted in their B category victory.

“Our performance was great. We won every race, except for one where we got third. The fellows just flew through the competition. They were on one accord and we got the job done,” Rolle said. “This is our first time and it feels great to win. We will definitely be back next year.”

Royal Bahamas Police Force’s D/Sgt 3127 Terell Stubbs noted that his King Tide started out a bit sluggish, but they regrouped as the Police do and they came up with their victory in the end.

“It’s a good feeling to win. It’s not the category we wanted to win, the C. We were aiming for the overall category in A, but a gold is a gold, so we will take it,” he said. “The water was kind of choppy, but we managed to manoeuvre through it and we came out with the victory.”

Larhondo Hanna, an employee of Breezes, said their Dragoneers team certainly had the breeze behind their back as they pulled off their title.

“We just put this team together two weeks ago. We were up against some veteran teams. They were laughing at us in the beginning, but we came out here and put our best foot forward and we got a medal,” Hanna said. “The team did an awesome job for the first time competing in the event.”

Hanna said they have a super boss at Breezes, so they can’t wait to see what type of celebrations they will get because “she’s the best boss in the world. She’s a winner herself and she will definitely push us to come back for another title next year.”

Ambassador Dai Qingli, of the People’s Republic of China, who was on hand to watch the event and also participate in the awards ceremony, said it was an important milestone for the continuation of the event they got started last year.

“I’m really excited because this year we had much more teams participating,” the ambassador said. “We saw competitors from all ages racing, so it shows that this sport is something that everybody can get involved in. “The significance this year is that you are celebrating your 50th year of Independence. In China, it’s the 74th year of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, so this is a good occasion to celebrate our achievements as countries.”

She also commended the Bahamas Chinese Dragon Boat Racing Association which worked so closely with the community in the Bahamas to make sure that the event was a tremendous success.Association president Dr Christine Chin said this year’s event was a lot of fun.

“We had 35 teams, who all showed up and participated. The Dragon Concherers came back and defended their title,” she stated.

“So we were very pleased with how things went this year. And we are definitely looking forward to next year.”