Pink Champagne Dragon Boat team entered the BCD national Championships, held at Holme Pierre Pont, Nottingham, in early October 2022.

This year we were the only breast cancer survivors team entered, and there was no specific category for that.

Our first race on the Saturday  was in the Open 200m category. We were racing against the big teams of Notts anaconda, Preston Dragons, Purple warriors and Thames Taniwhas. The conditions were sunny but with a strong head wind. We had 16 paddlers in the boat and clocked up a very respectful time of 1:11:02..

We had a further 3 races in the open category finishing in the tail race with a time of 1:17:77 behind Preston dragons 1:00:40 Worcester dragons !:00:33 and Bristol Empire 1:00:18The conditions were rough as these are the teams who usually paddle regularly under a minute in these races!

The next race was the ladies…with only 12 paddlers in a standard boat. It was a hard fought race with a head wind and we clocked up a time of 1:20:81 in the heats .We were pipped by Preston dragons who had a time of 1:20:00 :and we were 5 seconds behind Notts anaconda! This took us into the Minor final :Yorkshire Sharks 1:17:60 ,Notts Anaconda  1:19:46, Pink Champagne. 1:19:93, Preston Dragons  !:25:77 ,Worcester Dragons 1:27:54

A fantastic result against the top ladies teams’ hard fought battle .

We were then in the Seniors heat 1 race .We had only 16 paddlers in the boat but continued to battle and give a very good account of ourselves. The Minor final was against Preston Dragons 1:07 :74 and our time was 1:20:16

The Sunday saw us in   the ladies 500m The conditions were better but there were still only 12 paddlers in the boat which was rather old and wooden!. Our time was 3:07 only 9 seconds behind Amathus!

We were placed on time 3:07:00…We were faster than Preston Dragons Green crew 3:17:36 and only 4 seconds behind Powersharks 3:03:29. The other crews went through to a final.

The next race was the Seniors 500m. We had a very respectable time of 3:01:85 and were close on the tails of the other crews.

The afternoons racing kicked off with the Open 500m and we had three races again against the big boys and now with a tiring crew. Our best time was 3:03:00 which was consistent and the ladies really fought hard for every inch of water.