A handful of post World Championship updates on the official IDBF web page. The most interesting may be this one:

"New World Championships for the under 23s announced
1 October 2007 - In accepting a proposal from the British Dragon Boat Racing Association (BDA) the IDBF Members Congress approve the introduction of a World Championships for those paddlers who are over 17 but Under 23."


Necessary? Beneficial? A colossal waste of time? You be the judge.


And in other age category news, one arbitrary date has been swapped for another.

"Senior age qualification date changed - now the 1st of June
1 October 2007 - The IDBF Congress in Penrith accepted a second proposal from the BDA, that the qualifying date for each Senior Racing Class category should be the 1st June in any given year and not the 1st January, as it presently is."


My question is this: why use an arbitrary date at all? Why not just let someone race in the World Championships at the Senior level as long as they are 40 years old even if their birthday was the day before the race? Just bring ID.


These and other stories available at:

www.idbf.org

1st of june makes more sense because you want athletes 40+ near the date of worlds which is typically july-sept

As for the other racing class, for many reasons it does make sense, however I don't think the IDBF is there yet.

under 23 is a common concept. It keeps people in the sport during the junior to premier transition. All the more important in this day and age when it takes longer and longer to develop an athlete.

University style class?

I believe it is not geared to University class even though some on here think its all about them. Its all about development out of the JUNIOR level. Those kids will be stronger than the current University teams when they move up b/c of their experience.

I like this idea, I am 19 and I couldnt race this year at worlds because a) I was to old for juniors and b) was not as strong enough for priemer. As the poster said above. I think this a great way for juniors to transition to the priemer division, and maybe even promote more elite athelets in this sport

"I believe it is not geared to University class even though some on here think its all about them. Its all about development out of the JUNIOR level. Those kids will be stronger than the current University teams when they move up b/c of their experience."

Oh really? Read on...
(from the rest of the IDBF news article)

"The U23 events are also aimed at the increasing number of University based crews developing around the world, who would not normally come to a World Championships. "

depending on where your from, some sports are university based, others are club based.

Canada has club based programs for the most part. in the US most elite sports are run out of universities. Long term, this may be where we end up.

I doubt you could get an entire team of University students to fund a trip to Worlds. How many teams have anyone in this range for that matter, let alone twenty. It seems they would need some serious sponsorship.

I think a great example of 2 teams that could benefit from this is PDBC and WRCC, they have always had great junior paddlers and teams, however, I don't know any that transition straight to the world team, maybe club crews but not for worlds. I think with a u23 class, it will help the elite juniors stay competive, because I am hating the idea of not being able to race internationaly for quite a few years, (maybe 2010 club crews).

This is just another way for the IDBF to make money.
What other sport has so many classes for racing..?
Next thing you know we'll have the 10-15, 16-18, 19-23, 24-40, 40+, 50+, 65+

^^^

Spoken like a true ICF monkey

UC WaterDragons were invited to and competed in the World University Dragonboat Championships in Tianjin, China for three years in a row

Not anyone from ICF^^^ because if you know the CKC Masters age categories then they would not have made that comment.

University World Championships?

No one even knows what that festival is that you speak of. Thats the problem. So did you all think you were world champs or did you even medal?

cash grab

its all about the win-win

U23 good for athletes and good as IDBF fundraiser.

a cash grab, maybe, but so what?

Cash grab is cash grab. i didn't say anything more then that. Good for them if more people can participate. Like i give a ****. Don't be such a negative person.

I was the coach of UC in 2005 and the author of an article in Dragon Boat World about the aforementioned "World University" event.

The event that the Anonymous poster is referring to is the Tianjin Tanggu China International Dragon Boat Invitational for University Students. It gets very good participation from universities in Asia and only has a handful of American/Canadian students that have attended. While it is not a University World Championship, it is the closest thing there is to one.

And FYI - no U of T team attended this year, as a composite U of T team that was supposed to go didn't have the funds or time to go.

^^^^
I am a university student that has raced worlds 3 times... and i have never been told or heard about that event. If this is suppose to be a race for the U23, why arent the overagers for junior who have raced worlds, not being recruit?

Why not? Because I paddle at Balmy Beach and have no connection with the Junior World team.

Also, I don't like pestering people who I would have thought couldn't care less about paddling for a university teams. University racing in Canada from a competitive perspective is a step down from the West Rouge/PDBC program - let's face it. I paddle flatwater at Balmy Beach and I've asked kids that I paddle with that attend U of T before if they want to go - but they don't care for it.

If I had the connection to you guys, I would have asked.
E-mail me please. Title your message 'dragonboat' in case your email goes into my junk mail.

Thanks,

Jason

The top university crew in Canada gets the invite. You probably weren't racing with that team at the time.

^^
Hahaha lets face it. there aren't any good university teams, except UofT, Western has an ok program, but I go to Brock, and they have a community team and they post something like a 3:00 500m = a waste of my time when im used to posting times under 2:10 99% of the time.

The JR mixed team from Fairport posted a 2:00.01 at Worlds. The JR Germans went 1:57. HELLO!!! There will need to be some major time cuts if they want to be decent.

And, the phillipines post a time of sub 1:50...so what.
Ten seconds slower...on another course the top time would be 1:58 and the juniors
would do 2:08.
Stop inflating yourselves.

"I go to Brock, and they have a community team and they post something like a 3:00 500m = a waste of my time when im used to posting times under 2:10 99% of the time."

This is probably why you were never asked, as you do not attend the U of T.

""I go to Brock, and they have a community team and they post something like a 3:00 500m = a waste of my time when im used to posting times under 2:10 99% of the time."

You're worried about a waste of time and are attending Brock?

...oh, zinged!

I think its great for paddlers under 23 who don’t happen to go to a GTA university - since only GTA universities have a chance of putting together reasonably competitive teams.

If you're looking at university teams relative to each other, the GTA hasn't always been dominant. Phoenix ETS has always put forward a strong team (at least for the last 5+ years), and before that there was a time when Waterloo was the team to beat.

?????

Way to be wrong dude.

Phoenix ETS was on top in 2005 and first half of 2006:
http://www.dragonboatcanada.org/rankings/2005_Top250.htm

Then water for the remainder of 2006, and now new college in 2007.

"Phoenix ETS has always put forward a strong team (at least for the last 5+ years), and before that there was a time when Waterloo was the team to beat."

2000-2002 UofT Piranhas
2003-2005 UC Waterdragons
2006 UC/New College/ETS
2007 New College

Waterdragons in 2005. Don't think so:
http://www.dragonboatcanada.org/rankings/2005_Top250.htm

Rank 31 Phoenix ETS
Rank 43 University College Water Dragons

They never raced head to head until ETS beat them in Pickering the next year. However it was pretty clear that Phoenix ETS was the fastest university crew in 2005.

No head to head in 2005 would tell me that it is not clear. If you're going just by times you're just as good as the guy who keeps saying FCRCC Open's performance in Australia was better than the previous Canadian Open crews.

I'm not just going by times though. I'm going by times adjusted for conditions, courses, and boat speeds.

A few words before I shut up about university racing forever (ok for the winter):

1.It is true that Phoenix-ETS was faster by UC as defined by average times at festivals counted by the rankings.
2.It is also true that ETS and UC never raced head to head and that is one of my deepest regrets – win or lose – that we never had the chance to do so.
3.It is correct to say that New College was the fastest team representing a university in 2007 – hands down.

Although in the end, no one will ever able to definitively say who was faster – I think that those of us who have done it can acknowledge that university racing is truly a pleasure to participate and coach in. On top of that, there are have been some pretty decent university teams. Phoenix-ETS had a great 2006. And the UTSC Piranhas, New College, UC and Victoria College have all qualified for and/or won grand championships before.

HOWEVER..many past participants in university racing have a long way to go in terms its respect for both the letter/spirit of the rules of racing.

University racing is like the Wild West – everyone has their opinion of what the rules and whether or not they should apply to them at all. I believe that racing for a university team in an event that involves qualification for a university final means that every member of the crew (except drummer/steersperson) should be a full-time student of the institution they are representing for every single race in the festival, even if the heats involve racing with the rest of the field. I can say for a fact that there are very few of the more successful teams that can say this.

Just my final thoughts. Before anyone other than university team members or coaches cares about this division, its athletes need to step up the competitiveness while respecting the rules. And more immediately, it makes comparisons like “which university team was the fastest” completely irrelevant. I won’t out anyone, but no I’m not just talking about New College. The whole division needs to be more accountable.

I’m out of here for at least another 6 months. Bye! (And good riddance to some I’m sure)

The University teams are the ones that talk the most smack on here.

The IDBF has age category divisions already written into their regs (Sep 2003). Not only have they added the under 23 division (college/university student) but also have the system in place for over 50+, 60+ etc.

There is only ONE racing class that counts. Premier.
The rest are just fillers.

wrong

It is the open category.

NOTE : THe June 1st date to meet the age requirement only applies to Senior and Grand Dragon teams. The other age catagories , such as junior , still have a Jan. 1st date.

Judging from what I saw at Montreal this year, it seems the US could get a decent u23 class team as DCH looked mostly university/high school age, and they were strong enough to win the 250m open. Philly also looked like they had a few under 23ers, but that may have been the part of thier team that didn't go to Sydney. Was the US youth absent from Sydney? Would Canada be the only team to enter this class? What teams/countries would be strong in this category? I'm guessing mainly countries near the host city as fundraising could be a problem for many countries. So Poland or Moscow may see many teams but Tampa may be just US and Canada.

Maybe the IDBF should start allowing two teams per competition category from each country in the WC. More participation is needed. At the rate it's going the top championships will dwindle down to 6 countries.