Hi all,

The London results have been posted at http://dragonboatlondon.ca/results.html
"A" Champs were the Tail Gators. Great job everyone!

Heather

I guess Shockwaves time reflects their real time rather than their boosted Ranking average time.

You can't compare regression based averages to a particular regatta time. For example. G&G has never done a 1:58. However before the worlds they had beat Mayfair by about a second and a half in Pickering so whatever Mayfair does at other regatta's G&G regresses to be about the same time faster. Shokwave had some good races and are a good team. Certainly out matched to Tail Gaters. Hats off to them. Great regatta despite the weather.
Thanks

If you were there, you would know that almost all team's times were slower by about 3-4 seconds in the Finals than in the heats. (Hats off to Tail Gators who kept the same time in the finals as their second heat, but still 4 seconds slower than the first heat)

The water condition is different all the time, so you can't strictly look at one particular result and draw your conclusion. With the crappy weather, being cold and drenched, I'd like to congrats everyone who paddled in the London race.

But you can compare their times to a team that they have raced in another regatta. The Tail Gaters (who you state out matched them) for example are ranked lower than Shockwave 1 (26 vs. 22) and the their average times are over 1 second slower (2:11.2 vs. 2:10.1). Both teams are currently only ranked by the Stoufville regatta. There's no excuses this time, unlike Montreal where they claim that their B team (Shockwave 2) raced...haha. If they were indeed raked properly, they wouldn't have lost to a lower ranked team by over 4 seconds head to head in side by side middle lanes. The Tail Gaters also beat their times in the heats as well, but the races weren't head to head.

Not a bad regatta. Well run and the organizers handed out surveys asking what they could improve on. Nerds on Site (a sponsor) did a great job posting the results of the races quickly on a big screen. Cool! I would like to see more Toronto teams return to this event now that the past "quirks" of this event appear to have been resolved.

As you suggested, both teams are currently only ranked based on Stouffville - this means a small sample size. From the Stouffville times, you can see that the Tail Gators did indeed come in a second behind in both 200m and 500m races (http://www.paddlesportracing.com/Stouffville/2006_Results.htm), which is exactly what is reflected in the rankings by Power D. If more rankings were based on more races, then there'd be a more accurate ranking. Stouffville and London are the only two races the teams competed against each other, so who knows, maybe at the next race Shockwave will take the lead.

If Montreal's time was "blamed" on B team, then why don't you look at B team's times (Waterloo 2:15-16's, London 2:16-20's) and suggests that their better times are due to the A team.

Either way, Shockwave is over-ranked. They won't be seeing any more 2:11's this season.

Why wouldnt Shockwave go to oakville where there was better competition for them. Hydrophobic and Shogun, not to mention a strong Mojo's reloaded team would have made for a better show.

They obviously only sign up to regattas where they feel they have a chance to win.

"From the Stouffville times, you can see that the Tail Gators did indeed come in a second behind in both 200m and 500m races... "

I want to clearly state that I am not in any way taking anything away from the Shockwave team -- they are strong competitors, and whether they win or lose I've never heard them talk trash, which I respect.

If you look at the B Final race in Stouffville, you'll see that Tailg8tors beat Shockwave by over one second. What I still have trouble understanding is how some people cannot formulate this simple premise: 2 teams racing in different heats cannot be compared to the same 2 teams racing head to head.

If you don't get this, maybe you're a visual learner (that's cool), so I suggest you rent "Seabiscuit" which demonstates my point

hm... I thought we are human, not horses, or should we start comparing ourselves (Joel) to them?

if you only look at races where teams actually competed against each other, then I think we all should not look at rankings at all.

As far as going to Oakville instead - I could be completely wrong about this, but I would assume that since Shockwave won the 2005 London A champs, they would want to come back to defend that title. Plus the A champs get free admission the following year so they did not have to pay to attend London.

I believe the free entry for London is for the top fund raising team only. That is what I heard from the stage. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Nice to see my alma mater back on the scoreboard.

The festival awards a free entry to the team that wins A division champs to next years festival. Therefore, we hope to see Tail Gaters back next year!

This year, there was a pledge drive for teams to help raise money for the Children's Hospital of Western Ontario. The festival kicked in a prize of free entry to next years festival as the grand prize for the team raising the most money. This was awarded to the CITI Komodos who raised in excess of $2000. This was a great fundraising event as 100% of the money collected went to the hospital, none was kept back to cover costs of prizes or advertising. A "Jet" paddle was donated by Grey Owl to the individual who raised the most. In total, over $8,000 was raised!

In addition to these 2 free entries, we also give out a fair amount of hardware. Of the 40 teams attending, 18 got medals and 7 got trophies.

Heather

Why did Catch 22 get disqualified in the B Final?

went out of their lane, hit a boat, came back and hit the same boat again