Oh what a night!! 6000+ dragon boaters organized by country waiting patiently to start the Parade of Athletes down to the waters edge of the River Tisa! The excitement was palpable as we found ourselves surrounded by many other Canadian teams as we waited for the parade to start.
Amongst the crowd we found our fellow paddlers from back home at Fanshawe Lake! At home we call them Pendragons, but here in Hungary they are paddling with the Great Lakes Paddlers alliance who are made up of a group of teams around Southwestern Ontario and they are making their first trip to CCWC!
Assembling 6000+ paddlers in to some sort of orderly fashion is a feat of engineering in itself! The organizers and volunteers did a fantastic job of corralling everyone and getting us pointed in the right direction.
Canada was in the first group of countries to make our way along the parade route. We are 20 paddling clubs strong…approximately 30 crews altogether…and it was our own Linda Wharton who got every Canadian in the crowd singing “O’Canada” as we walked! It was such an inspiring moment!
We walked from the city square through a park and down a staircase to the concrete river bank to pass in front of a waiting audience as they applauded and cheered for the athletes carrying their team banners and country flags.
Once we found our place we sat in the stands and joined the crowd in the cheering. As the other BCS teams passed we clapped and cheered louder while waving at the friendly faces we know from previous competition! As we watched we saw many happy reunions between paddlers from opposing countries, some actually broke from their groups in the parade to quickly greet and hug their friends that they may only ever get to see at these competitions!
When the parade was finally over the river bank was FULL! Then we were treated to an air show by one very talented pilot in a “Red Bull” sponsored plane. He did many dips, dives and many other airobatic moves…including a number of free falls and passes under bridges and low over the water before pulling up “just in time” to miss slamming in to another bridge. As he finished up the pilot made the plane “wave goodbye” with it’s wings in one final pass down the river. It was spectacular!! And likely the only way to get 6000+ people to be quiet! LOL
Speeches and other festivities followed the air entertainment but, sadly, we were just to far away to see or hear them regardless of our efforts. The crowd eventually dwindled and we went in search of our bus back to the hotel. Racing would start early the next day so we made it as early a night as possible.
The next days race schedule…if you want to look up and watch our races on YouTube when they are posted is: Tuesday, July 17, 2018 – 200m race #’s 4, 13 and 44.
Next post – 200m race day!
Suzanne Newington
Rowbust member since 2011, keeper of the blog and a very proud member of the 2014, 2016 & 2018 Club Crew World Championship crews!