Posted 02.03.06

ULLADULLA SUMMER GAMES REPORT FEBRUARY 25-26

CLICK FOR PHOTO GALLERY What a fantastic weekend. 24 Club members from Sandy Point with their family & friends drove to Ulladulla for the weekend to compete in the Ulladulla 'Summer Games'. Sixteen Dragon Boat Teams had entered and the competition was going to be tuff. Our teams consisted of 8 x women & 12 men plus 4 reserves making a total of 24 paddlers. All teams needed to compete in 3 x heats in order to qualify for the grand final. Sandy Point competed in the first heat comfortably winning the 200m in 52 seconds. We then made some team CHANGES and competed in our second heat against some hot competition. We came 3rd with a disappointing time of 55 seconds. The other 2 teams won convincingly. For our 3rd heat we made further team changes and came first with a very close finish and a time of 50 seconds. We knew we had made the Grand final but also knew 2 teams were ahead of us with times of 48 & 49 seconds respectively. Grand Final time came quickly and further changes were made in haste. The idea of the team changes was to allow everyone to have a minimum of 2 paddles and to fine tune the best team for the Grand final. By some sought of fluke, the selection committee got it right and Sandy Point went onto win in the 'Sports Catagory' Grand Final with the very hot time of 46.22 secs. Second place was run in 47.72 seconds, so we were winners by 1 1/2 secs and with the best overall time of the day. The Sandy Point Team was acknowledged for their win and each paddler rewarded with a gold medal, although they were 4 medals short, we soon rounded up the extra medals. Needless to say there was excitement everywhere. Acknowledgement to Ben Kalgovas who did a great job of being our 'drummer' for the final race. We know Ben you wanted to paddle towards the end, but we needed you to drum for our team and you took on the role allocated to you without too much hesitation - thanks for showing us your sportsmanship. Barbara - have you come down to earth yet? I suppose when you finish sleeping with your medal you will probably ask Dave to build you a medal cabinet and have it hanging in your very special D'J's room. If you see Barb & Phyllis doing their victory lap down Bingara Drive & Gambier Ave please give them a wave - you ladies are a inspiration and thoroughly deserve to be winners! This was our 5th competition regatta and our first outright victory. Well done Sandy Point Dragons! Race Summary: Heat 1 - 52sec [ 1st place ] Heat 2 - 55sec [ 3rd place ] Heat 3 - 50.9sec [ 1st place ] Final: - 46.22sec [ WINNER - GOLD ] On the recreational side of the weekend, accommodation and hospitality was kindly offered by Jim & Margared Steel at their very beautiful weekender at Milton. Both Margaret & Jim kindly provided & cooked a beautiful dinner for about 25 people on the Saturday night. You wouldn't believe it though, just as we sat down to a gourmet meal, the heavens opened up and dumped a waterfall of rain upon us. Have you ever seen 25 people scramble and try to enter a single doorway all at once - well, we did it! We would also like to acknowledge that Jim & Margaret only accepted part payment towards the food costs as they kindly re-donated $100 back to the Sandy Point Dragon Club. So to Jim & Margaret, please accept our thanks and appreciation for your support & kind donation from The Sandy Point Dragons, their families & friends.