IBM Dragon Boat Team conquers Melbourne
The IBM Dragon Boat Team receives bronze medals at the Australian Corporate
Games.
Fresh from victory in Sydney at the Shunde Festival, the IBM Dragon Boat
Team were pumped up and ready to avenge a 4th place result in 2005 at the
Australian Corporate Games in Melbourne on November 25.
We went into the competition with 17 paddlers instead of the usual 20, but
with a spirit and yearning to win equating to many more!
The Melbourne weather lived up to its reputation with the day starting off
as a pleasant Spring, moving to a violent Winter by the time our first race
was to start!
We had 3 heats against our pool of AXA, Telstra, VicSuper, and the
Murrindindi Shire Council, winning all of them comfortably!
One team capsized in the high seas and we did have one near miss as one of
the other sweeps nearly clipped us before colliding with another team.
Luckily we had our excellent sweep, Steve aboard and some fast paced
paddling to avoid any damage.
Our competition in the semi final was mostly unknown, but from their times,
we knew we had to really pull out that 110%! We managed a 2nd placing,
beaten by Beca who had been coached by the Victorian State Team. This meant
a place in the A final and possible medal contention.
In order not to repeat a similar history from last year, the 110% needed to
be boosted to 120%. We were prepared to put in the extra effort as the 4th
place finish last year still had a bitter taste in our mouths.
We were at the starting line and ready. Our race plan called for all the
strength that we could muster, and then some. We kept building and
building, keeping our stroke rate steady & our energy levels increasing as
we neared the finish line. Yes! We had beaten Beca who had beaten us in the
semi final.
The race was won by James Squire who were really the Victorian State Team
in disguise and Caltex, very tough Corporate competitors, so a 3rd place
was a mighty fine effort, considering our depleted crew and the injuries &
illness on board.
We ended up with quite a band of supporters. There from the start was our
Executive Sponsor, Robert Orth, who continued his stay in Melbourne just to
support us. I’m sure that his cheering helped to bring out that extra
effort we somehow found!
It was a wonderful feeling to finally step upon the podium as our names
were called but our ever-smiling captain Ingrid van Uden & greater still to
walk the cold & windy streets of Melbourne with our new ‘bling’ keeping our
hearts warm.
Our work for the day was done, so time to have some fun!
By sheer coincidence, we ended up at the same Korean restaurant as Caltex
for our celebratory meals & partying. We have a fun rivalry with them and
were happy for their well deserved win, but we still had our egos and still
needed to show our IBM superiority in……’boat racing’. Yes, we were able to
skull beer faster than Caltex, although no trophies were offered for this
win!
We had a fun weekend, came home with some great souvenirs and look forward to doing it all again next year, hopefully getting some Melbourne IBMers on board to share in, hopefully, further victory!
The team’s focus will now shift to the highlight of the dragon boat season,
the Chinese New Year races at Darling Harbour on Sunday, February 25, 2007.
If you’d like to be involved in that exciting celebration, please email
Julie Mungomery (juliemgy@au1.ibm.com) for details and information about
training sessions. We’d love to see you on the water!
Regards,
Julie Mungomery
