Image source: Dragon Steel SE
The 13th Long Distance Dragon Boat Hungarian Championship was held in Baja on April 20, and a total of thirty-eight teams competed in the various categories at this year’s competition.
In the crowded field there was also the Dragon Steel SE from Dunaújváros, which entered a large boat crew in the premier open category, but as the only entrant, they had to reconsider their departure at the last moment, so in the end they started as the eighth boat in the premier mixed 20, with their boat half of them consisted of youth competitors, moreover, due to a lack of staff, 18 took part in the competition, said Edit Tóth, president of Dragon Steel SE, who of course also reported on their results in the competition.
– The length of the race was eight kilometers, which meant 35-40 minutes of persistent struggle. The race is exciting and spectacular for the fans, as the crews go around Petőfi Island in Baja once or twice, depending on the distance. To our great delight, the drivers took videos and many pictures of us during the race, and the weather finally took a turn for the better on this day, even the sun came out from the clouds and neither rain nor wind made things difficult for the competitors. Some of our members are selected aspirants for the National European Championship in Racice in July, they were required to participate in the Hungarian Championship. Our boat was composed of 10-75-year-olds and eight women/girls rowed in our boat, and our goal was to fight for each other in a fierce competition, to the best of our ability, in the most beautiful style we have learned and to be as fast as possible. Our boat also ran very well with the many youth competitors, already in the first round we overtook the boat that started 30 seconds ahead of us. They, however, did not give us an advantage, so the fight with them began for the remaining 5 km. At the turn, we managed to get in front of them with a trick stop, and then we kept the position. We defended and won the multiple obstructions and irregular behavior, with a 10-second advantage, while the unsportsmanlike boat received the same penalty. Our boat finished in seventh place, and after a long winter it was an extraordinary feeling to clash with units from other associations in a kite boat again, to compete continuously, and finally to get out of the kite boat extremely tired, with crumbling legs, but with uplifting feelings. There wasn’t a single unnecessary sound during the race, but our boat ran very well, we drove as we should, there was serious cohesion between us and everyone felt, in this tense situation, what they had to do, so I’m very proud of everyone.
List of Dragon Steel SE competitors: László Biró, Vivien Biró, Angéla Bőhm, Nárcisz Fehér, Attila Horváth, Zsolt Illés, Dr. Zoltán Katona, Adél Lakatos, Enikő Lakatos, Viktor Lakatos, Alíz Orsós-Tóth, Zita Ősz, Ágnes Putráné Prak, Péter Simon, Zoltán Szilágyi , Ábel Telekes, Edit Tóth, Gergely Tóth, Béla Varga, Petra Wágner, Dávid Wizner, Luca Wizner.
