Medals galore for Narooma paddlers at 16th Australian Masters Games

Forty seven sports were played at over 70 venues from October 21-18, with dragon boating being the second largest sport with 427 participants.

The three paddlers from Narooma, Allison Steele, Jenny Troy and Heather McMillan were part of a squad of 32 paddlers called the Southern Warriors.

The Southern Warriors was comprised of paddlers from Merimbula, Moruya, Orange and Parkes. While paddlers from the South Coast clubs were able to have a number of training sessions prior to the regatta the teams which competed at the Games had never paddled together before.

Each event had three heats and no finals with place getters being determined by times. This meant that teams had only one chance at a medal and had to combine well.

Despite the lack of joint training, the Southern Warriors performed exceptionally well and came home with a bag full of medals.

The Narooma paddlers proudly came home with 11 medals between them. The 20s boat  events they competed in and the medals they won are as follows; Gold in the Women's (50 to 60yrs); Silver in the Women's (40 to 50 yrs); Silver in the Open (50 to 60yrs); and, Bronze in the Women's (60+yrs). They just missed out on a medal in one of the 10s boat races with the Women's 40 to 50 yrs team being piped at the post by less than a second.

“The organisation of the event was fantastic, all of the volunteers were dragon boaters from across Tasmania and they did a marvellous job,”  Heather McMillan said. “The atmosphere was very friendly with an emphasis on participation rather than winning.”

Dragon boating is a sport suitable for all age groups and fitness levels. If you would like to have a go at dragon boating, pop down to the club’s boat shed (situated next to the Quarterdeck Café) on Saturdays at 8.30am.

For more information contact the club on 0477 610 953, or, email  Narooma.bwd@gmail.com

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