BY GIANNI UBRIACO
It was a sunny day for racing Saturday at Bell Park as Lake Ramsey played host to the seventh annual Sudbury Dragon Boat Festival. 
The event raised about $90,000 for the Sudbury chapter of
the Multiple Sclerosis Society.
More than 90 teams in four divisions, including recreational
mixed, competitive mixed, competitive women and competitive
open, competed in 47 races held throughout the day.
  view more photos
The big winner from the competitive mixed division for the
second year in a row was the Canadian Senior Dragonboat Club.
"It always feels good to win," said team member Bruce
Raymond. "It means all our practices paid off and our
crews came together as a team. We're paddling the way we
want to paddle and we're getting the results we want."
Raymond explained that his team has been training a lot and
worked very hard in the off-season to get where to where they
are now.
"All of the other crews were great, but I think we were
just at our peak today," he said. "Sudbury is a great
warm up, a tune-up event for us going into the world
championship trials coming up in the beginning of August.
Sudbury attracts some very good teams, so the competition is
very hard and that's exactly what we want."
The 49-year-old has been paddling for the past 13 years and
plans on continuing that trend in the future, both for the
exercise and the sheer enjoyment of it.
"It keeps us in shape, it gives us a focus for our
physical training and it's social as well," he said.
"A lot of us are life-long friends and it gives us an
opportunity to stay together and do an activity a lot of us
have been doing since we've been kids."
Meanwhile, the women's team representing the Canadian
Senior Dragonboat Club also managed to cross the finish line
and take first place in the competitive women's division,
but only by a fraction of a second.
There were also six recreational mixed division championship
races held with Masters of the University coming out on top in
the division six championship.
"I think this is great," said 24-year-old first-year
biology student Vivien Hoang. "It's for a great cause
and you get to meet a lot of great people and a lot of these
people I know and I've seen around school, but I've
never had a chance to talk to them. Now, we've spent two
full days together, we learned about our peers together, and we
have a whole day planned out together."
The division five winners were the Swiss Chalet Shake Your
Tailfeathers with the Golder Riff Raft team finishing in last,
but they were still happy with their performance.
"We had a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed it, said
team member Elio Tomini. "It gives yourself a sense of
pride in your company and promotes a sense of teamwork. It also
promotes a sense of togetherness amongst our peers."
In the division four championship, the Employees of Canada
Revenue Agency took first place, bringing a smile to the face
of veteran paddler on the team, Alvo Santone.
"I've done it for seven years and I've enjoyed
every minute of it," he said. "I can't describe
it. It almost becomes a passion."
In other action, the Sudbury Professional Firefighters
Association Dragon Slayers won the division three championship,
the Paddle Whackers won the division two championship, and the
division one championship went to the Pickering Dragon Boat
Club. There were also consolation races held for each of the
various divisions.
"It was a lot of good-hearted competition," said
Andrew Gerhard, a member of the Y's Guys team which
finished in last place in the division one consolation final.
"I think it takes advantage of the lakes we have in
Sudbury. It's nice to see all the people out here enjoying
the outdoors."
