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Rupert Rainbow Warriors nab 'B' gold

They may call themselves the Prince Rupert Rainbow Warriors, but to the Lakelse Dragons, they were a major thorn in Terrace’s side.
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The Prince Rupert Rainbow Warriors won three races and lost one at the 2015 Terrace Regatta earlier in September.

They may call themselves the Prince Rupert Rainbow Warriors, but to the Lakelse Dragons, they were a major thorn in Terrace’s side.

The 10th annual Dragon Boat Regatta at Lakelse Lake in Terrace was the site of a finals victory for the Warriors on Saturday, Sept. 12. To achieve their gold medals, the team took out the host Dragons twice in two races.

In the ‘B’ finals, the Rainbow Warriors took gold versus the Dragons at Furlong Bay to kick off the championship ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ series, starting at 4 p.m.

They completed the race in 1:17.3 and improved on last year’s finish, when they won silver in the ‘B’ final. That race was the second and final time the Warriors left the Dragons in their wake.

Their time was also a full three seconds better than the silver-medal winning Dragons this year, as the Dragons finished their finals race in 1:20.5.

The Terrace Regatta races featured teams from Terrace, Quesnel, Smithers, Kitimat and Rupert and the race format is characterized by a round robin event, where each non-seeded team races against three other teams in a head to head matchup.

The Rainbow Warriors finished in first in two of those matchups, beating the Lakelse Dragons once more as well as the Tyee Lake Dragons, and losing to the Kitimat Leftovers – the eventual overall meet champions.

In their first round robin game against the Dragons, the Warriors beat them by three seconds again, with a time of 1:14.5 compared to Lakelse’s 1:17.6. For their second qualifying race, the Tyee Lake Dragons made things more interesting for the Warriors, finishing only 1.6 seconds behind the Prince Rupert crew.

The Leftovers defeated the Warriors by 5.3 seconds to relegate them to the ‘B’ finals.

The White Lightning finished in second and the Free Spirit and the Tyee Lake Dragons finished in fifth and sixth overall.

A number of women from Rupert also took part in the ‘Ladies of the Lake’ Mix-Up Race, with the Lady Bugs finishing first, the Dragonflies in second and the Lovelies coming in third.

The Terrace Regatta closed out the 2015 dragon boat season for the year.

Anyone wishing to get involved in next season’s races can contact head coach Lori McWilliams at loripaulmcw@gmail.com.