By Jason Au and Rob Chang

The Golden Communications Piranhas finished fourth out of seventy-one teams at the Pickering Dragonboat Challenge in an extremely deep field which included many of the top-ranked teams in Eastern Canada. Making their fourth straight Grand Championship appearance, the Piranhas finished behind the X-Paddling Collective, CIBC and the Mayfair Predators, and established themselves as the community team going into the 2002 Toronto International Dragon Boat Festival's Community Division.

It cannot be emphasized how deep the field was at Pickering, which included the following teams:

• Scotia Spitfires (#3 in Ontario)
• X-Paddling Collective (#4)
• Mayfair Predators (#6)
• BMO Investorline First Dragons (#8)
• Scream'n Demons (#9)
• Mercedes Benz (#12)
• Baycrest Blades (#18)
  
• Royal Bank Golden Lions (#30)

As they arrived on the crowded shuttle buses that travelled from the Pickering GO Station to Frenchman's Bay, the crew knew that it was in for its first true test of the season. Pickering is regarded as the top warm-up race for the big Toronto Island race, and as a result of this, many high-calibre teams come to Frenchman's Bay to compete.

Qualifying Rounds

The Piranhas were one of the last teams to race in the qualifying rounds. One thing that was apparent by the times that teams were clocking was that the course was very fast. In the first race of the day, the Scream'n Demons clocked a sub two-minute time of 1:57.35. Many Piranha eyes opened even wider as the corporate powerhouse Mayfair Predators clocked in at 1:52.97. The entire venue took notice when the young X-Paddling Collective blazed through the course in 1:51.41. The Shaolin Monks, who nipped the Piranhas at the TIDBRF finish line last year by less than a second, won their heat in a time of 1:57. What the Piranhas were truly capable of, would soon be determined, in one of the last qualifying heats of the day.

Race 15 saw the Queens Dragon Boat Team, the Golden Communications Piranhas, Wongs Immortal Dragons and Water Warriors line up in lanes one through four respectively. As the race began, the boats in lane two through four broke away from the Queens University team. A sloppy start cancelled any hopes of the Piranhas breaking away from the pack. The stroke rate rose, and calls to lengthen their stroke were ignored. As the race progressed, the Piranhas managed to break away from the Water Warriors, but the Wong's B-Team had done the same. Towards the end of the race it was a two-boat race for first. The Piranhas barely held on, and the Piranhas were left speechless after what they perceived to be a weak first heat.

Heads hung low as the Piranhas headed back to camp, ironically, just in time for their sponsors to arrive. Coach Rob Chang debriefed the disappointed paddlers, re-emphasizing that Pickering was only a tune-up race, and that we were only here to get comfortable and iron out our race plan. After drying off, the Piranhas headed off to view a video-tape of their poor performance. However, on the way to their high-tech video-replay station (Rob's trunk), Scream'n Demon Richard Rosen approached us, congratulating us on our excellent performance. Excellent?

"What are you talking about, we looked like (human excrement)", said our coach.

Reminiscent of the Piranhas' University Cup race of a year ago, their worst race translated into the best time they would post for the day - 1:51.30. Finishing slightly ahead of the Wong's Association boat (1:51.39), and well ahead of the Water Warriors (1:56.32) and Queens (2:06.21). The Piranhas time would stand as the top time in the qualifying round, and going into the semi-fnals, they had secured the top seed.

The BMO First Dragons and Scotia Spitfires both posted times in the 1:54 range, while Mercedes and Baycrest won their heats in times of 1:55 and 1:57 respectively. Because of their success, the Piranhas had secured at least a top-8 finish in the festival.

"That was a nice tailwind, wasn't it", said one on-looker.

People were in disbelief at how the first round of races had unravelled. The Piranhas couldn't have gotten that much better, and the team that the Wong's Association had sent was not their raceoff team, so no one expected them to perform well. Our U of T counterparts from ViCrew overheard some nasty comments from another shocked spectator which were much too inappropriate for our site.

Thankfully, one of our sponsors, Loong Liang of Golden Communications, was more encouraging. He noted that if our first race was traditionally our worst race of the day, things would improve as the regatta progressed. As the top seed, the Piranhas were lined up with the RBC Royal Bank Golden Lions, Scotia Spitfires, and the Mayfair Predators.

Semifinal Heat, "A' Division

As the top seed, the Piranhas received the fortune of lane 3. However, they were sandwiched in between two strong teams - Mayfair and Royal. The Scotia Spitfires had the bad fortune of lane 1, notorious for being slow. The top two teams from this heat would qualify for the "A" final and the bottom two would be relegated to the "A" consolation.

At the start of the race, Mayfair pulled away noticeably off a great start, and RBC completed the Piranha sandwich. Scotia surprisingly fell behind the pack about halfway through the race. At the last set of buoys, Mayfair had created nearly a boat-length of a lead over RBC, and the Piranhas followed shortly behind RBC. However, there was no panic in the Piranha boat. The race plan had been executed perfectly to this point. The Piranha start was noticeably cleaner than their first race, and the stroke rate never rose to an unreasonable speed. There was only one thing left to do.

Piranha steersperson Ling Tin called the finish and the Piranhas powered past RBC to finish second in the race. Mayfair came in at 1:52.10, the Piranhas at 1:53.15, RBC at 1:53.87, and Scotia at 1:54.82. Scotia, the top-ranked team going into the regatta never recovered from the effects of their bad lane. Smiles spreaded contagiously through the Piranha boat as they headed back to shore and these smiles persisted as the team high-fived each other on the shore. The Piranhas were headed to their first Pickering Grand Championship, and had either beaten or stuck with some of the top corporate dragon boat teams in the province.

Their success could not be attributed to a simple tailwind in their first heat. These Piranhas were for real. At least for this one regatta.

The Piranhas dried off, and during this time, X-Paddling set the fastest time of the day, finishing at 1:50.40 in the second semi-final. CIBC, finished second 1:52.37 to round out the set of teams that was bound for the Grand Championship. Wong's Immortal Dragons finished third at 1:53.62 and Mercedes came in at 1:54.82, good enough for fourth place.

Grand Championship Final - Oikawa Cup Race

The luck (?) of the draw placed the Piranhas in lane 1, while X-Paddling drew lane 2. Lanes 3 and 4 were to be occupied by corporate powerhouses Mayfair and CIBC. The first two lanes featured Ontario's top young crews, while the next two featured two seasoned corporate teams.

As the crew warmed up, the crew was very relaxed and loose, very much to the relief of their Coach. As they backed away from the dock, the Piranhas made the beeping sound of a truck backing out of a parking space, in the same fashion as the Canada Life crew. This managed to get a few smiles on the faces of some of the X-Paddling crew members. They were obviously loose and primed to go as well.

All four boats bursted away quickly from the start line, in an impressive display of power. Mayfair and CIBC appeared to be jockeying for the lead, shortly followed by X-Paddling and the Piranhas. The pack was still tightly bunched at the halfway mark but the effects of lane one took its toll on the Piranhas as they started to fade from the pack. Nearing the finish, X-Paddling began to surge with their patented high stroke rate and they managed to nip both CIBC (second) and Mayfair (third) for the win. With about 150 meters to go, the Piranhas had called a finish in an effort to close the gap but to no avail. Becoming the latest victim to Pickering's notorious lane 1.

At the end of the day, the Piranhas had managed to play with some top-flight competition, and while they left medal-less for the second straight regatta (they got hats and shirts for their Guelph Victory), they received more than any medal could give: confidence and respect. Exactly what they needed heading into the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival.

Congratulations also go out to the Warriors of Hope for winning the Breast Cancer Survivor Cup in a time of 2:21.73, and the Mowat "A" for capturing the inaugural Ontario High School Dragon Boat Challenge.

Results:

Open Division: