Christina Haveman has returned to defend her former school’s title as champion of the Youth Dragon Boat Festival.
Haveman, a Grade 12 student at Sir Winston Churchill Collegiate and Vocational Institute, returned to her former Thunder Bay Christian School team for the 12th annual Dragon Boat festival at Boulevard Lake on Saturday.
Haveman has participated at the festival with the same team for the past four years. Over the years, the team has gelled together better and now work together better than they did when they first started.
But Haveman said they do still stumble a bit.
“I always come out because it’s a community event and it’s fun to do,” Haveman said. “I guess we win every year because we're determined and we all like working together. We’ve been working together since kindergarten. I like to support the Christian school and support my old team.”
She believed her team has claimed victory about nine times in a row. It’s an accomplishment she’s proud of.
Earlier this week rain fell by the buckets across the city and led to warnings of possible flooding.
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Volker Kromm, president of the Lakehead Canoe Club, said they were worried about the rain this year because it could have forced them to cancel the event.
“We watched the weather very closely because we have a couple of rules such as we can’t deal with the high water and currents,” Kromm said. “It’s always safety first.”
Despite having snow last year and having a week of rain, the student continued to show plenty of enthusiasm for the event, he said.
Thirteen teams from various schools between Grades 7 and 12 competed at this year’s race. The number of teams who participated decreased by five compared to last year.
Kromm said they were in a period of adjustment and expected the numbers to go as high as 20 teams for next year’s race.
“The rules changed this year for training at the schools,” he said. “We’ve learned and we’re going to pick up again.”
The races wrapps up around 1:30 p.m.
