A Tale of Dragons

Seventeen representatives from St. Clare's had an early start on Sunday to take part in the annual Dragon Boat Race in Abingdon.

The team had three heats, with the aim to get the fastest time be able to compete in the final.

In race one they were up against team Sovereign and St. Clare's defeated the competition with a winning time of 01.02.60. In race two they were against the Oarsmen and women of the apocalypse, again they saw off the competition, with a winning time of 01.01.42. This was a huge victory as the Oarsmen and women of the apocalypse had 5 team members who had represented team GB in the lightweight rowing squad and achieved silver medals in the London 2012 Olympics.

Race three saw the team against Christchurch Abingdon who had recorded the fastest time of the day. The team did not let this affect their performance and they beat Christchurch Abingdon with an amazing time of 00.59.50. This was the fastest time that any team had recorded in the heats and St. Clare's should have been straight into the major finals, to be able to compete for a medal. Unfortunately the organisers decided to change the procedures and have two four boat semi finals, with the first team from each semi final going straight through to the major final with the two fastest losers.

This was disheartening for the team who had put everything into the heats to be able to secure a spot in the major final. The team ended up coming third in their semi final fighting against a strong head wind which resulted in them missing out on a place in the major final.

The team were excellent throughout the whole day and did the college proud. Thanks to Cormack, Ulf, George and Jennifer who came down to support the squad.

The squad consisted of:
Maximilian Mueller, Amir Amangeldi, Kirsten Lillie (Student warden), Taisija Sifrina, Igor Sukhorukov, Kinga Kwolek, Maciej Pysklo, Matija Lagator, Freya Mohamed, Nicole Whyms, Tomas Knapp, Chung Yin (Nicolas) Fan, Zhantuar Zhumanalin, Pavlo Holtva, William Kochanski, Wenkun He and David Genis.

 

Rebecca Pyrah, CAS Coordinator

September