Who will win the Mix, Men and Women's category ?

Premier Men - Philadelphia
Premier Women - Montreal
Premier Mixed - Kurpfalz

Also, who win the other divisions: Junior, Senior, Grand Senior?

I'd watch out for a clean sweep by the West Rouge Canoe Club Juniors

With Jim pulling his team Mac should sweep, my god they place 3rd in everything at the Worlds and China and Jim aren't here - Makes you wonder why they don't have a PP rule in Sr.???

I think its because some people on the IDBF board race in the premier divison and wanted a chance to medal.The rest of the divisions they did not care about as they were not participating in them ...stupid rule if you ask me.

The national team should have be allowed in premier just as they are in every other division .

Premier Men -
1. MAD
2. Philadelphia
3. DOngguan
Premier Women -

1. OHDBC
2.Montreal
3. FCRCC

Premier Mixed -

1. Kurpfalz
2. OHDBC
3. FCRCC

hah, the last poster is hilarious! MAD men winning? hah! Montreal Women losing to Outer Harbour? hah!

Shtoorm has to be considered a favorite in the men's having won all the golds in Cape town and one in Rome. Macau, if it is the national team, will be tough too, they did well in Berlin.

I have to disagree with the West Rouge Juniors.... I think PDBC elite collective will dominate

Premier Men

1 - Shtoorm
2 - Kurpfalz
3 - Sloths

Premier Women

1- Montreal
2- Sloths
3 - FCRCC

Premier Mixed

1 - Shtoorm
2 - Sloths
3 - Kurpfalz

Unfortunately, Canada gets shut out of mens and mixed but dominates premier women....also dominates in Senior men, women, mixed, junior men, women, mixed grand master men, women and mixed winning each of these divisions and taking some silver and bronzes as well.

Best overall crews:

Premier Men: Shtoorm
Premier Women: Montreal Women
Premier Mixed: Shtoorm
Senior Men: Canadian Senior DBC
Senior Women: Canadian Senior DBC
Senior Mixed: Canadian Senior DBC
Junior Men: Laoyam Eagles
Junior Women: Laoyam Eagles
Junior Mixed: Laoyam Eagles

Open Division Champion: Scotia Rouge

This is the real Canadian National team folks and not the group that went last year. Combo between G&G and Scotia Rouge = 80%+ of the 2000-2004 Open World Champion Canadian National team less a few paddlers (like Larry Cain). Still got the Buday's, Stott, etc.

If they don't win, they medal at the very least.

"Scotia Rouge: This is the real Canadian National team folks and not the group that went last year."

I, too, heard that the Canadian team that went to Berlin last year was not Canada's best team. So who was the team that went to Berlin last year? And why didn't the "real" National Team go to Berlin?

Cost

Despite some sponsorship, paddlers had to pay at least some of their way there. After racing in Philly, Poland and Shanghai, many of the top paddlers couldn't spend the money anymore. Plus they likely didn't want to use up vacation time on something they have done a few times before.

Premier Men - Kurpfalz
Premier Women - Montreal Women
Premier Mixed - Shtoorm
Senior Men - Canadian Seniors
Senior Women - Canadian Seniors
Senior Mixed - Canadian Seniors

Why isn't Larry paddling? I can't believe no one asked him to be part of their club in a race in his own back yard.

Can you say G&G. He will be there

it'll be great to watch all the national guys compete against each other.

Montreal Men should win a medal

don't make me scoff loudly. Not the way they paddled in Montreal, they will get crushed. You haven't seen the Russians, Germans or Australians obviously. False Creek, Scotia Rouge will also finish ahead of Montreal. For god sakes man the Jamaicans will probably finish ahead of Montreal.

I don't think so Matt told them to race at 79%....
Plus they beat 3 rivers quite easily....in the Final.
I think the depth and character of that team makes them a dark horse.
With the leaders and egos these guys have they should do well

OK guys now give me 79%. Bull****, who ever heard of a coach saying something as ridiculous as that!

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or We will crush you Western Scum!!

Russians apparently are not coming so forget about Shtoorm. Their entry was only provisional and they didn't come up with the funding for the trip.

False Creek men and mixed are excellent. They were very good in Welland. They will be very good this weekend and must be rated the top Canadian crews in those premier divisions.

Scotia Rouge/G&G not the "National Team" that many posters making it out to be. They have some of those guys but not enough. They'll be good but won't win.

G&G did more than party at Gary's cottage, trust me and watch. Tutty coaching them the last month.

So, Shtoorm are not coming? Any proof of this, or just hopeful enthusiasm?

Mens Final
Premier
1. Kurpfalz
2. False Creek
3. Sloths
Premier Mixed
1. False Creek
2. Kurpfalz
3. Sloths

Premier Women
1. Montreal
2. Sloths
3. Uckermark

FCRCC will clean up in Premier mens and mixed .After watching them in Welland I don't think any other mens or mixed team will be able to touch them.They were extremely fast in welland as we all saw .....

FCRCC is always strong. Easterners are just starting to realize the benefits of outrigger paddling.

Of course FCRCC were fast. They've got the benefit of a huge membership to draw on versus the very limited membership of typical eastern "clubs" that are based largely around the old corporate/community team structure of old.

There's no way a typical eastern club should beat FCRCC. The numbers just don't add up. The fact FCRCC were able to mount a credible challenge to the incumbant National team just reinforces this.

A more suitable comparison of east vs west in a club crew setting would be something like TD Lightning (in a good year) or Gorging Dragons vs Mayfair or Hammerheads, etc.

The FCRCC crew has been together for well over a year as mainly the same crew and they have no fly ins but trained extremely hard ....just like any other top team.They have a great coach and and put in the time to try to win the NTT and they were so close .

If FCRCC were to draw from within its ranks ( say outrigger)I can pretty much safely say they would have been even faster and would have won hands down .That crew you saw worked their butts off training hard to get to where they are right now .They are a true dragonboat club team w/ no last minute drop-ins or changes .The majority of that team are dedicated dragonboat paddlers

The venue sure looks nice; brand new bike paths, new grass, trees, etc. But how's the water? Standing at the edge of the shore, you can see some weeds growing.

We've been assured that all the lanes are equal across the five lanes.

"If FCRCC were to draw from within its ranks ( say outrigger)I can pretty much safely say they would have been even faster and would have won hands down ."

Yeah, right. Bring it next time and prove it.

No shame on the crew that did compete, and did well by all accounts. But this suggestion that "we would have won easily if we had brought our "A" team" is garbage.

This was your chance to do just that, and you didn't?

More fool you.

Was down there yesterday. Along the boardwalk you can see tall weeds near the surface. But the inside lane looks like it's more than halfway out towards the breakwall and the water on the near side gets much deeper on the second 250, so at least it shouldn't be like Ontario Place where you run into a wall at the finish. The lanes looked a little close together and the outside lane looked very tight to the breakwall, but that might only be the perspective from shore.

I'm not sure the FCRCC outrigger paddlers would have made a difference. In fact, probably not. They're into long distance, not sprints. The top guys and girls are training for Molokai (60k race in Hawaii). They also think dragon boating is the "dark side" of paddling. <wink>

As a member of a rec team that has shared a practice time slot with the FCRCC mens team for the past 18 months, I can attest that the vast majority of those guys have definitely been together the whole time, with only 2 or 3 news faces this year.... granted some of them do do double duty on mixed teams other than the FCRCC Mixed (ROLI, FODB, Swordfish) but from my vantage point they have been commited to their Mens Club Crew for a long time.

Cannot imagine that they could have been much better than what they were if they had attempted to cherry pick the best paddlers from all of the teams that paddle out of FCRCC.

Boy do they fly in practice... my hat is off to the crew that was able to beat them..... Love to see a rematch some day in salt water.

Thanks Van Guy, for the post and clarification!

Pretty exciting seeing all the teams decked out in their colours. But what was with the MC's totally botching the English language? Note to all future dragon boat regatta/festival organizers: hire an MC who can actually pronounce the host country's language properly!

"Put your hand for our great friend to welcome to Toronto!!!!!!!!"

^^^ Phew! I thought I was losing my ability to comprehend english properly. Actually, they had a decent command of the english language and did a decent job. Their problem was the slight accent they had that was made worst by the fact that they couldn't pronounce half the team names. Oh well, maybe Sharifa can find some native english speakers next time it comes around...

"There's no way a typical eastern club should beat FCRCC. The numbers just don't add up. The fact FCRCC were able to mount a credible challenge to the incumbant National team just reinforces this."

This was a very weak year for the so-called national team because they only started training weeks ago as a crew and many had not been in a dragonboat prior.

Keep dreaming, west coasters.

FCRCC have been training in anticipation of this event and will decidedly mount a credible challenge, as will all other teams that are willing to make the trek out here. To think otherwise or ignore these facts would be foolhardy... everyone is out looking for a win, otherwise they wouldn't be doing it

Those announcers last night were brutal. It wasn't an accent problem, they made so many grammar mistakes.

And yes I realize that it's not a big deal, it's only a crappy ceremony....but when you have people from other countries laughing at them, it's embarassing!

How hard is it to hire a TV reporter, or personality that actually can speak in front of crowds well?

interesting to go back and read predictions and compare...

G&G was generally speaking the bust of the weekend...don't think the premier mixed crew medalled at all...scotia rouge either - in fact arguably the most consistent performers of the Canadian premier mixed entries were False Creek (swept the board for gold I think) and Mayfair (silver in 200 m, 4th in 500 metres and 6th in 2000 metres)

so I guess the price club approach to a club crew doesn't always work...

Premier Mixed 500 results were 1st False Creek, 2nd Philly, 3rd Kurpfalz followed by Mayfair. The only Canadian team to make the Premier men's 500 final was False Creek, second in a great race with Kurpfalz.

yeah close race ...I think the the time diff. was like 23/100's of a second between 1 & 2 .

the time difference between fcrcc and the germans was 0.024seconds... an incredible race to be a part of.