I'll let someone else provide the gory details, but it wasn't pretty.

I didn't see G&G embarrass themselves today. It was a great day of racing (the weather was a nice change from last year).

G&G had two good crews out there today. They clearly have some exceptional paddlers, and with more opportunities to paddle together, are a threat to win any festival.

It was a pleasure to race with them.

Well Mayfair finally joined the ranks of stacked crews.

Uh, G&G, after losing, demanded a re-race even though the two teams who crashed in that race did not interfere with G&G whatsoever. Ridiculous. Sore losers.

Maybe G&G couldn't live with themselves after losing to a senior team!

who were in the final? Any sub 2m times?

Senior National Team....aka Mayfair

I'm assuming by the comments that Mayfair won. Can somebody confirm the A final results? At least the placements.

Thanks

CSDC beat G&G in the final. G&G got their "re-race", but only one other team (not CSDC) agreed to participate. So G&G had a re-race agaisnt only one team. Pathetic.

1.Mayfair
2.G&G Sony
3.CSDBC
4.Scotia Rouge
5.G&G Panasonic
6.WRCC A

I believe all the re-races were a farce. They should have just given our penalties and be done with it. There's no reason why crews should be colliding, especially with the ghost lanes. Sounds like some wash-riding gone wrong.

our = out

It was great watching G & G re-race against just one other team. How on earth did G & G even bother to re-race when only one other team did so. G & G lost. Period.

The full story without the hype:

In the men's race: Lane three veers into lane 4 which veers into lane 5 (G&G) and interferes. G&G veers off and makes up ground but can't squeeze it. CSDC wins. G&G protests and referees who were watching the race agree that the interference was significant enough and call a rerace.

3 and 4 are DQed, Mac pouts and withdraws his crew, leaving G&G and just one other crew.

What happened after though should get him thrown out of the sport forever.

In the mixed 200 that immediately followed Mac takes a bead on G&G and deliberately crashes into them.

It's not just stupid and juvenile, it's dangerous.

I LOVE this sport!!! It's like the WWF of regatta racing with all the crazy characters and rivalries.

Frankly, I think that all the top six crews should form their own
regatta full of National, Senior National, Olympic or ex-Olympic paddlers
and play with their own ego's there.

Pathetic to watch.
This sport is again turning back into the early years when Canoe
Clubs dominated the sport because the average Dragon Boater was not
close to them in technique or ability.
Now they have caught up, the coaches have once again switched paddlers
in crews to fill their roster with atheletes that resemble an all star
paddling line-up.

Mac/Jim/Gary...this is how to destroy grass roots involvement.
The fact you basically have to have a "National Crew" on the water now
to beat the field talks volumes of what you truly believe about the
sport.

I agree. It's pathetic to see what the sport has turned into. It's all about big egos. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Egos=satan

I don't think it's sad, corrupt or says anything negative about the sport that we got to see an A final full of fantastic athletes. Sure, not everybody can contend for the A division, but there's competitive racing all the way down the food chain. Excellence is not a bad thing for the sport. It's an example of what's possible. Complaining about it seems a lot like sour grapes.

WRCC is comprised of mostly high school/university dragonboat paddlers, none of whom paddle flatwater. They train hard and have fun. Don't include them in a category with National paddlers and Olympic athletes.

Sour Grapes ?
Just because the rules state that you no longer are exclueded from putting
a crew in with current or ex-national team members doesn't mean that you
should.
If you want to race a National Crew because you need them race sharp,
don't go in and place them in a local regatta and pretend you are doing
it for the benefit of all the others paddlers so they can wish they
could emulate their performance.

Why not train together instead.
Oh, that would mean co-operation though and jim/mac/blake just don't
seem eye to eye.

As someone said above, WRCC does not have one Olympic athlete on their team. They do have a bunch of athletes that have participate in National/International events for Dragonboat, but not for flatwater. The team is basically full of 17-24 year olds, who just love the sport and paddle their hearts out. This team has a lot of potential if they are competing and challenging teams with international level caliber. If they stay together and get stronger as a team, I can see this team destroying the Dragonboat scene in the near future.

you can get a fair priced tv there...

What is the argument against having national level athletes compete? Your team doesn't get to win so you won't enjoy it? The way you look at the teams with national calibre paddlers is probably the way every team in the B-Z division looks at your team. Why doesn't the B division rally together and call for a ban of all A division teams and say it's for the grass roots development of dragon boat?

The purpose of getting seeded into a division is to have even competition and fun in races. If you didn't make the absolute highest division then just enjoy the racing in the division where you qualified.

Besides, there are plenty of festivals that won't have such fierce competition that you can attend.

June 3 at 8:37 a.m. pretty much has it right. Personally I don't think G&G needed to protest, but the Seniors certainly could have come out and raced it. Talk about embarrasing. The referees/officials made a decision. Refusing to accept it is cheap. Clearly the person who initiated this thread and those that are adding to the hype are either in Mac's boat or just got caught up in his spin, which he vocalized pretty loudly to bunch of people around the G&G tent who weren't even involved in the race. Compared to that I think G&G conducted themselves with class and dignity all weekend. So for that matter did most of the paddlers in Mac's crew. It's only Mac that seems to have lost his nut.

I thought the regatta was great. Great, competitive racing at all levels, well organized and some really good crews at the top level. Congrats to Mayfair who were clearly on and appear to be the local favourite for the WCCC qualifier.

I think that all of the complainers who are posting in a couple of threads about stacked crews should simply get a life. The reality is that other than G&G nobody had any National Canoe Team athletes near their prime - and they didn't even win! Each of the "stacked crews" has a couple of former top level sprint paddlers and perhaps a couple of premier national team DB paddlers but the majority of the paddlers in each of the boats are "ordinary" dragon boat athletes who through a lot of hard work have become very valuable members of some outstanding crews. Far from "ordinary", I'd say. I think everyone should be supportive of these paddlers as they have successfully proved what many of you have been claiming all along - that "legitmate" dragon boaters can contribute to crews competing at the highest level. Congrats to all of them.

Mac's a goof.

Any complaining about other teams having good paddlers is so lame. The event is uplifted by the presence of national and former olympic sprint paddlers. If you care about the sport you should be able to appreciate and enjoy the elevated quality of competition.

As for the open race re-race, I could care less.

Mac's Mixed Crew - Senior National Mixed Team
Mayfair - 8 Senior National Men, 2 Senior Women, 3/4 Premier Women.
G&G - Buday's, Cain, Maxwell, etc. etc.

No. They definately were not stacked or resembled a National Crew.

So I take my two boys to a local Hockey tournament.
When we arrive we find that BC, Alberta, Nova Scotia have sent their
provincial team to play as a warm up for the Canada Games.

"But, you should be inspired to see the level of performances
by these kids" explains the their coach's.

Sure.

Since when is Pickering a warm up regatta you knob. Wake up and suck it up.

Did you enroll your kids in the sport or rec division? Seems to me you're f-ed it up there dad.

Pickering is one of the most competitive races if not the most competitive race in the GTA. If you enter in the sport division at the most competitive race then what do you expect?

So now we are counting 'Senior National Team' as National Team athletes?? There are people in these crews who are far from high level athletes. They are regular people who may have never excelled at anything who've been working damn hard to belong to such a crew. True there are also a couple of athletes who were former National Sprint Canoe/Kayak competitors and in the case of Mac's mixed boat one Olympian and 1984 medallist. 1984 is 23 years ago. We aren't talking about a current Olympic medallist like Adam Vankoeverden being in the boat. We're talking about someone almost 50 years old who has kept in shape but is far from a high level athlete anymore. I don't think anyone has the right to complain about Mac's boat participating in anything. If you aren't happy racing in the same regatta then find another one. Pretty much same can be said for Mayfair whose Olympian was 1984 vintage as well but who also have a couple of the premier national women. They are good not because of their few stars but because of their supporting cast and the fact that they have working hard together as a crew. Kudos to them

G&G is the only crew with current National Team athletes in sprint canoe - the Budays and Kyle Jeffery. I imagine they'll have more at the race offs. They also had a few of the premier women. Cain wasn't even in the first mixed boat so don't add him to the stacking discussion. Anyway they lost, proving that it's not the few superstars you have but rather the time you spend together as a crew that makes the difference.

Most people complaining here just aren't willing to put in the time training to be good. They'd rather complain about those who are willing to do the work being allowed to race. Why can't you be happy racing others who put in the same effort as you and beating them in a lower division? That's the beauty of an event like dragon boat. Everyone can find their own level within the competition and be competitive within it. You don't have to win the A division to be successful. And anyone who is good enough to be in an A division crew should relish the chance to race other good crews and good athletes and shouldn't be complaining.

"G&G protests and referees who were watching the race agree that the interference was significant enough and call a rerace. 3 and 4 are DQed, Mac pouts and withdraws his crew, leaving G&G and just one other crew. "

Wasn;t G&G also a sponsor of the regatta? If so, how could the officials have made an unbiased decision?

how about Mac running into Montreal in the women's race? the back left actually had to stop paddling.

seriously, how hard is it to steer a dragon boat. I thought this guy was super coach?

The were crashes in numerous races. Only one race was re-raced: the one that G & G lost. You not like Mac, but don't let your feelings toward him cloud your judgment about the utterly-ridiculous re-race decision made by the G&G-sponsored officials.

I agree with 6:43 p.m.

I'm old enough for the Grand Masters, and I know that in order to compete with 20 year olds, we've got to work that much harder. While I can understand complaints about current national team paddlers racing (although I don't agree with the complaints, and think it is great to have them there), I think any complaints from 20 year olds about having to race against 50 year olds are unfounded.

No matter what the record of success is for a bunch of elderly paddlers, if a young crew can't be competitive with them, then they aren't working hard enough.

I know how Mac's crew trains, and I've seen Mayfair training... how many of the people complaining were out practicing early this morning (Sunday), immediately after the Pickering festival? I know Mayfair was.

Thankyou Mayfair paddler, we all needed to know you were on the water today.

I'd take any of the "Senior" crew members you have.

We were, but we weren't even in the sport division. Too bad we didn't win

http://www.ohdbc.ca/OHDBC/2007%20Schedule.html
I thought Hammerheads was in the Sport Division

There were a couple of re-races. I know for a fact that the University Cup was re-raced because we were hanging around waiting for the Bankers Cup race.

And yes, the Hammerheads were in the Sport Division. They won the B Final.

I think teams should be able to race with whoever they want.

I don't think anyone should be allowed to race for more than one crew at the competative level.

I don't understand why anyone would argue to the contrary.