Teams live and die by their first race at the Pickering Dragonboat Challenge and the under-manned Piranhas Dragon Boat Club failed to qualify for the A division bracket of the competition and were relegated into the B division en route to a third place finish in the B Division Championship, good enough for 15th overall. Overall, it was not a good day for the Greater Toronto Dragon Boat Club's top crews, as the Imperial Dragons and Tempest also finished below expectations, in seventh and tenth respectively.

The first race of the day pitted the Piranhas against GM Driving Force, which was short bodies and was able to fill their engine room with some qualify National Team paddlers. The Piranhas finished second in their heat in a time of 2:09.64, which was only good enough to qualify 18th in the competition.

In their semifinal, the Piranhas finished third behind Hanalei and GM Driving Force in what was a very technically sound race in a time of 2:07.36. The race was tight, as Hanalei only won by 0.36 seconds and GM was a mere 0.15 seconds ahead of the Piranhas. While jockeying for first through third took place, the Blades were only 0.01 seconds behind the Piranhas.

The B-Final saw the Piranhas once again finish 3rd out of lane 1, as the Piranhas nipped Hanalei by 0.06 seconds in a time of 2:09.21 but could not catch up to GM Driving Force which took the B division championship ahead of Y Paddle, a team which spun off from the PDBC's X-Paddling Collective.

Congratulations are due to the Champions of the Pickering Dragonboat Challenge, the Wongs Dragonslayers, who won the A-final commandingly in a time of 2:03.36, nearly two seconds in front of back-to-back defending champions, the X-Paddling Collective. With the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival taking place in two weeks time, the Hammerheads appear to be the top community team headed into the Island, and the Piranhas appear to be underdogs for the first time in a few years. It will be up to them to rise to the challenge and silence the naysayers who may be counting them as serious contendors.

See the resources section for full results