The Northern NSW Regional Dragon Boat Team completed a clean sweep of all three categories at the NSW State Championships held at Penrith.
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In the team were 21 paddlers from Flamin’ Dragons Port Macquarie including the coaching and management team.
Gold medals were presented to the Opens (men’s) team, with southern NSW second and western NSW third.
Women’s, with the west second and south third, and mixed with south second and west Third.
Northern Region squad coach David Pees was thrilled at the success of the team.
“It is a great result to back up from last year and again bring home gold,” he said.
“Paddlers from Armidale and right down the coast to Forster came together to prove that we are the best in NSW.”
Team manager Kim Blundell echoed Pees’ thoughts.
“With three from three, we now have the right to represent NSW at the Australian Dragon Boat national championships in Albury in April.”
Racing is held over 500 metres with 22 people in a boat that when fully loaded weighs over 2 tonnes.
“We will now continue our training to take on the best in the country,” Blundell said.
“Queensland and Victoria are our biggest competition, but like last year, we cannot get complacent as South Australia and Western Australia have excellent teams.”
The national championships will be held at Gateway Lakes, Wodonga from April 19-24 and will be live streamed via the Internet.
Flamin’ Dragons also entered the club championships with their women’s team progressing to the finals.
The club will also head to Albury to represent Port Macquarie at the Australian titles in April.
