Rotary Dragon Boat Challenge
24 teams entered this years Challenge supporting more than 20 different charities as well as those supported by the Rotary Clubs involved. At the time of writing final details of the amount of money raised towards those charities is still being calculated and indeed still coming in. (An update on this site as soon as the final figures are available will be made.)
The Rotary Clubs of Chantry (Wakefield), Normanton and Horbury & Ossett Phoenix are proud to have been involved once again in the organisation of the 14th edition of this hugely popular annual event.
Pugneys Country Park again hosted the event with the lake providing a wonderful backdrop to the days racing. Each team paddled 3 times in the heats with up to 16 Paddlers and a drummer manning each boat. Heats were run with 3 boats in each race and the times for each boat counting towards qualification for the finals.
We were honoured with a number of VIP Guests on the day. The Mayor of Wakefield, Cllr Darren Byford and his partner, The Mayor of Normanton, Cllr Alison Bones and her Consort and Rotary District Governor for Yorkshire, Richard Greenwood and his wife Trish.
Each team nominated a charity of their choice to receive the sponsorship raised by the team members. On the day there were multiple fund-raising initiatives on the team pitches along the banks of the lake. Cake sales, tombola’s, Childrens games amongst a host of others.
Teams also made a huge effort with their fancy dress. The Trophy for best dressed team was judged by the VIP’s with Team SIGMA winning by a very narrow margin!!! (See the Gallery for images of all of the fancy dress teams)
2 categories of teams were offered, including those with at least 50% women. At the end of the day after 24 heats the teams in the finals were
1st Sigma
2nd Mayors Mighty Warriors
3rd Stuarts Big Kiss
4th Musical Mariners
5th Vistry Vikings
6th Extract Rowbots
1st Stuarts Big Kiss
2nd Division of Surgery
3rd Give a Duck
4th Totally Oarsome
All of the results are published on the Results page of this web site including all race times.
The Ladies final was won by Stuarts Big Kiss who received a Dragon Trophy to keep.
The overall final was won by Sigma who received a large Dragon Trophy to keep and the Stuart Wardell Memorial Trophy to retain for one year.
