If a random member of the U of T student body were told that there is a successful dragon boat team on campus, they would likely refute the story or categorize it as a rumor. However, such an organization does exist, and they are a very successful one at that. The team recently represented U of T and Canada at the International College Dragon Boat Championship that took place in the city of Tianjin, China.

The University College (UC) Water Dragons, as they’re known, earned a spot in the competition with a sweeping victory at this year’s University Division Championship at the Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival.

However, such success did not come with ease. The Water Dragons did not have it all pulled together until their final race festival.

“The competition was definitely present, but everything really fell into place for us,” said 2004 team captain Adrian Yen. “Leading up to that moment, we had paddled with every bit of effort and spirit we had desired our crew to possess, finally crossing that finish line as a group of friends who would have each paddled till collapsing before ever giving up on the team they had worked so hard to be a part of and make proud.”

Being part of the Tianjin Championship marks the launch of Canada and U of T onto the world stage in Dragon Boat Racing.

Also at this year’s International Championship were Harvard and the University of California, who also got invitations for excellent performance. There were also sixteen other teams drawn from various campuses around the globe, including Russia and host China.

The team’s presence at Tianjin was not free of some stress here and there, foremost of which was the short notice on which they were informed of their invitation.

Wayne Sang, a team member, outlined some of the challenges the team faced on this ‘short notice’: “We were just coming together after adding another teammate and, to be frank, the team wasn’t nearly as prepared as we would have liked. Due to injuries and sheer distance…a couple of our members had not been able to practice paddling in over a month, let alone practice with the team. Some of our members met for the first time in the Beijing airport upon arrival, 2 days before the festival.”

Evan Wainberg, the team’s captain in Tianjin, said team spirit helped the team overcome these obstacles: “We had very little time to prepare the whole team to race together. While I was a little worried about this, I was sure we would be together when it counted. After our full team took its first stroke in our one and only practice in China, I knew we were as prepared as we were to be.”

“Even though gelling as a team wasn’t done under the best of circumstances, we were lucky enough to have come so close in such little time,” added Wayne Sang.

Another twist in the experience of the Water Dragons centered on obscure rules. At this tournament rowers could kneel or stand in the boats-a rule which put the home teams at an advantage over others, because China is the only country that uses it.

Aside from this, the team had a great time in Tianjin. Its diversity drew the squad attention in this small Chinese town. Team members related that they were “swarmed with literally thousands of spectators who crowded around eagerly to watch and meet [them].”

The Russian team was another interesting story. They put up astonishing performances in the championship heats coming first in the 500m and 5km races. The skills they displayed in the heats and their body sizes made event officials suspicious that these were not university students.

It was later revealed that these Russians were actually members of the national Canoe Team using the “college festival as a training exercise for a Canoeing festival,” according to Sang. This discovery led to their disqualification from the competition.

The Water Dragons participated in the 500m and 5km races and were grouped in the B Division for their part in the tournament. The team put up a very good performance for a newcomer, despite the new rules they had to cope with. They placed fifth in the 500m race and sixth in the 5km race.

“We did as well as could be expected. We stayed very competitive with the other North American teams, eventually beating Harvard and coming close to UCLA,” said Wainberg.”We also edged out the Australian team and, except for the completely different style of paddling that the Chinese teams use, paddling in our first international competition was not much of an issue for anyone.”

The UC team has set a new pace for other teams on campus and set a new record to be equaled, but still face some fundamental problems on campus with regards to funding. Though the team gets some financial support from the Students’ Administrative Council, more money is always needed.

Adrian Yen explained what the money goes to: “To have your team participate in the Centre Island festival alone costs over $2,000! With limited funds at our discretion, we do our very best to raise our own revenue via local fundraising events

“[But] since this team is also a part of U of T, we are not allowed to search for external funding which would have our university funding taken away,” added Wilson Hong, the team captain for the upcoming season.

A pub night in November is the next such fundraiser the Water Dragons will host.

The UC Water Dragons are currently in the middle of selecting a team to lead them to glory this season. The new leadership looks forward to another great season with more members, earlier practice schedules, and alliances with other sports bodies.

“While we were happy over our performance in the university division this year, the team definitely still has lots of room for improvement to raise our standings in the community division,” explained incoming captain Wilson Hong. “One way in which we are trying to merge our team’s newfound competitiveness, while making sure we welcome people from any background, is starting practices earlier in November as opposed to traditionally in January. There has also been talk of joining the varsity rowing team in the off-season to stay in shape. In general, we will adding some higher level exercises and also look more stringently at reliability of individual members, which is crucial for team dynamics.”