Trinity retain U-21 Dragon Boat title

Trinity showed excellent teamwork as they paddled away with their second consecutive title in a time of one minute, 7.10 seconds. Queen’s Royal College (1:10.10) had to settle for the silver medal while Hillview College were only able to muster a third place finish in 1:15.80.

Speaking to Newsday after the achievement, Trinity College’s captain, Nicholas Mac Leish said: “A lot of energy was expelled in the last couple of races as some of our athletes had to participate in backto- back races, however, the team showed great effort by giving that extra push when it was needed the most, and now we can boast of back-to-back titles.” Mac Leish said their was only possible because of the long hours of hard work in training and the time invested collectively by the team.

“One of our main motivators was keeping the Regatta title in the school and we consider this location our home as it is our training turf, however, despite the scorching heat and the number of competitors increasing, we were able to apply the techniques and tactics worked on during those long training sessions to reclaim the title. It was a great team effort and a great well done to the guys at Trinity College Moka,” he said.

Action got underway close to 10 am with 16 schools competing which was the largest number of entrants for the annual event sponsored by Excellent Stores Limited.

St. Joseph Convent (POS) paddled away with the first gold on the day as they won the U-16 Female Small Boat event in one minute, 39.90 seconds ahead of second placed Bishop Anstey High (1:40.70) and St Joseph Convent (San Fernando) (1:59.30). In the U-21 Female Small Boat event, St.

Francois Girls’ comfortably held on to the first position as they finished the race in 1:31.70, bettering St. Joseph Convent (POS) who timed 1:37.50 and Holy Name Convent (1:42.80).

QRC’s blistering pace in the water (1:24.30) proved too much for the Polytechnic Institute and Hillview College in the U-21 Male Small Boat event and they were left battling for second. Polytechnic’s (1:27.10) just managed to scrape past Hillview’s time of 1:27:50 to secure silver.

Things were then shaken up a bit when both male and female teams paired up with their ‘sibling’ schools as they contested for the U-21 Mixed Small Boat crown. Trinity College paired with St. Joseph Convent (POS) as they rowed their way over the finish-line in 1:25.00, well ahead of the Polytechnic’s mixed team time of 1:30.10 and the 1:35.20 timing of Hillview’s combination with SAGHS in third. Bishops Anstey High held their own in the U-21 Female Standard Boat event as they copped the gold medal in 2:31.10 and managed to maintain a deserved lead over St. Joseph Convent (St. Joseph) who finished in 2:39.60.