Race Report
by Gavin Godfrey

Our day took a bit of a blow early, the absense of our ID tags meant that we weren’t going to qualify for the Mixed Finals, but did we let that dampen our spirit or our determination – not likely!

• Mixed A crew: had to race the clock, as it was the only thing that could keep up with us, claiming the fastest time in both Heat 1 (2:00.73 by 1 sec) & Heat 2 (‘2:02.16 by over 2 secs) as well as the Fastest Mixed Time of the day and times that were not far off the top Opens Crews.
• Mixed B crew: also showed awesome strength of charactor in racing the clock and recording 2:06.932 in the first heat and 2:09.96 in the second – times well worthy of a place in the B final.
• Chicks (Gold) – 500m: had a nervous start to the day but finished the final almost 2 seconds up on the opposition and flew across the line getting faster every stroke they took;
• Opens (Silver) – 500m: we had a few newer guys step up to race in the Opens crew and perfomed superbly to take a comfortable 2nd place to a strong Sloths crew – definitely the crew to watch at Nationals;
• Chicks (Gold) – 2000m: we looked good (according to the commentator); we turned well (thanks to Anne) and we stormed home to take Gold and are laying claim to have the fastest womens AND mixed time of the race…. word from the finish line was that we had more than 10 secs over CYL the Mixed Winners. Sadly the technology is not available to confirm.
• Opens (Gold)- 2000m: tried to look as good as the girls (according to the commentator); turned even better (thanks to Anne again) and stormed home to also take gold.

Congratulations to Leila on racing & drumming her first race and to everyone who took home their first medals – may there be many many more to come your way in the future!

Special mention must go to:

• Charlotte, Dave & Annett for their assistance helping organise us to race;
• Helen for feeding us chocolate mudcake and the twins for having a very well timed birthday;
• Sarah E for going above and beyond the speed limit (way way over the speed limit) to get our tags to Penrith;
• The boys for breaking the ID Tag Land Speed record and getting the girls to our first heat on time;
• The Mixed A & B crews for racing the clock for excellent times in the heats.

And to EVERYONE taking one for the team and not getting upset about it. I have had several other clubs comment that if it was their club it would have caused a huge fuss, but you all showed that us that being part of our team was more important to you than qualifying for a final. You will have learnt more from this experience than you will ever learn from winning a race.

Next stop – National Titles 2007 – Easter Weekend. BRING IT ON!

Gav, Juls & Christian.