The winning time by Indonesia in the Grand Final was 3min 32.016s (ie 00:03:32.016) with the following splits:
00:00:51.156 (at 250m)
00:01:44.660 (at 500m)
00:02:39.037 (at 750m)
00:03:32.016 (at 1000m)
From the video it is pretty easy to see the reason for the amazing times - up to 15 to 20 sec faster than those recorded at IDBF World Championship events. The boats are significantly longer than the IDBF Specification Boats mandated for IDBF Events. Boat Speed is a function of water line length. These boats (the dragon heads are typical of that used by the manufacturer of the Swift Dragon Boat) are long and sleek. When we raced at the Asian Dragon Boat Championships in Wujin back in Apr/May 2010, the Dragon Boats were Swift's and they had an extra seat bench, making it 11 benches, rather than the traditional 10. Looking at it a bit more, I think the boats are same as used in Wujin (see photo below). The rest of the Dragon Boat world can take heart that they are still competitive. Just need to compare times with those teams that normally compete at IDBF World Championships (ie China, Singapore, Iran, etc).
Complete Results for the 1000m Men: Grand Final, Minor Final, Repercharge, Heat 2 and Heat 1.
Fantastic that the times are recorded with splits. Will give me the opportunity to look at pacing strategies - what worked and what did not, etc. Stay tuned ..
Some more thoughts provided here. I can't help but think that these boats are even longer than those in Wujin. Will dig into the photo archive to see. Geoff
ReplyDeleteSome speculation on why the Philippine's Dragon Boat Team were not in Guangzhou.
ReplyDeleteMore video (from Japanese spectators) starting from:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zzxm2RDRYo
Hey Geoff
ReplyDeleteI am trying to reconcile the boat length and speeds in the Mens with the times recorded in the Womens (which are pretty much the same as, say, the times the China Womens crew recorded in Sydney in 2007 in spec BUKs). I'm assuming the boats are the same (they look the same) so why are the Men's times so incredibly quick ?
Cheers
Z
Chris, I had noticed the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese Women's Crew is the young team from Zhaoqing and not the lovely ladies from Jiujiang who we are accustomed to seeing at international events over the last 8-10 years. At the 2010 Club Crews in Macau in July, the Jiujiang team won in a time of 02:00.497 and the Zhaoqing team coming second with a time of 02:01.117, 0.62s slower (3rd was a Canadian Club team in 02:05.367). The boats used were all new BUK 10 seat Dragon Boats. The are very similar to ours but had a bit room in Seat 1.
In Guangzhou, the young Zhaoqing based Chinese Team won in a time of 02:00.667, only 0.45s slower than their Macau time. Implication is that the boats made no difference for the women.
For the Men, I can't really tell if it was the Jiujiang team (the Red Team in Wujin and Macau) or the younger Blue team in Wujin. The Jiujiang won the Club Crews in Macau in a time of 01:51.744 (second was Nymburk Dragon Team CZE in 01:52.404).
In Guangzhou, the Chinese team came 3rd with a time of 01:46.480 (5.264s faster than their time in Macau). Indonesia came first with 01:44.506 (1.974s faster than China) and Myanmar with 01:45.622.
The Chinese team being the reference, then how did they find an extra 5.2s? Maybe in Macau they weren't not pushed and only did enough to win the race. Also, a few months of solid training between Macau and Guangzhou would have helped.
Also, maybe the boats helped find the the 3 or 4 seconds difference between Guangzhou and Sydney 2007? Bit hard to explain, because of the Women's results described above. Maybe the boat resistances are similar for power output for a womens crew. For the men's crew the resistance of the Guangzhou boat might be lower for the power output of the Men's teams? Maybe, 9 months of training 3 times a day is the answer? More later ..
Hey Geoff
ReplyDeleteYeah I've been perplexed by the difference as well. My sense on racing:
1. everyone would push as hard as possible in the finals, particularly for an Open or Womens final (you might go a bit lighter in the Mixed if you are winning but know that you have another race to go, although the China crews are separate crews so they wouldn't have this problem).
2. the training is obviously superior and ultimately makes the difference - nothing beats hard training ! But also the other crews we have seen (particularly the Asian crews) have a history of putting alot of hours into their training so I don't know whether this can account for the difference.
3. if the boats were the difference then we should have seen a difference with the Women too. On the other hand, if the boats were longer, and not appreciably wider or heavier, they would have a higher terminal velocity and should go faster.
4. finding 5 seconds is a tough thing once you are already close to terminal velocity (but as above, these boats could/would/should have a higher terminal velocity).
Ultimately this is still a mystery ! Maybe Gav might have an insight into this one ? Could this be a paradigm shift in dragon boating and the new times to beat are that much quicker ?
It is a shame that the Asian Games didn't use spec boats because this would have largely put an end to the debate. Indonesia and Myanmar rarely if ever compete on the world stage so we might not get a chance to see a true head to head race with the Western crews. This is a shame as I've often said that if the top Asian crews competed the standard would be higher and my money would be on a largely Asian final (with Australia in there too of course !).
Cheers
Z
Guangzhou Winners Pick Up Their Cash Rewards (Jakarta Globe - 01 Dec 2010):
ReplyDelete[..] Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng stood by his word that the bonuses would be paid out this week, but acknowledged that he had been “worried” about where the money would come from.
The coaches of the medalists also received bonuses on Wednesday. “The amount was just staggering, and I was quite worried about that at first,” Andi said during a ceremony at the Gelora Bung Karno sports complex in Senayan, Jakarta.
“But there were some groups that really helped us out, and we’re very grateful to them,” the minister added, without identifying those groups.
The men’s and women’s dragon boat teams received a combined bonus of Rp 40.5 billion, or 89 percent of the total bonuses paid out.
That included Rp 26.4 billion for the men’s team, which won three gold medals; Rp 13.2 billion for the women’s team, which picked up three silvers; and Rp 150 million for the coaches.
Though it proved costly, Andi defended the ministry’s decision to give medalists in team events the same bonuses as winners in individual events.
“We want to treat all the winners equally. I hope this will serve as motivation for athletes to do better in future tournaments,” he said.
Andi Pedrota Putra Kasuma, the youngest member of the men’s dragon boat team, said he planned to buy a house and start his own business.
Andi, 17, is one of the 22 members of the men’s team who received Rp 1.2 billion each. The average monthly salary of a national athlete is Rp 7 million. (Geoff: that's equivalent to 14 years of work at their average national salary).
“It’s just amazing that all this is happening. Who would’ve thought I’d come to this point this fast in my career,” he said. [..]
Speaks for itself.
From dragonboatweb.com/:
ReplyDelete16th ASIAN GAMES DRAGON BOAT RACES – GUANGZHOU CHINA
November 20th, 2010
Our colourful sport was featured for the first time in the Asian Games, held this year in Guanhzhou, China or to be more correct Zengcheng, a city some 80 kilometres or so from Guangzhou. Held under IDBF Competition Regulations and Rules of Racing, the competition took place on the Zengcheng Dragon Boat Lake from the 18-20 Nov 2010.
In the absence of any detailed information about the event from the Chinese Dragon Boat Association (CDBA), we can only report on the bare facts of the competition as gleaned from various sources including the 16th Asian Games website.
Thirteen (13) ADBF Members competed in Guangzhou and a futher three initially had entries accepted by the Organising Committee but these were later withdrawn by the National Olympic Committees concerned, for reasons unknown or unclear. The prime casualty amomngst the threee was the Philippines, current holders of the 200m World Record and favourites for a medal or two in Guangzhou.
The conclusion from all of this is that ‘NOC power politics’ has entered our sport. Let us hope that it does not spread to other NOCs as the sport grows in new Countries.
In the actual races, with crews using Traditional Chinese style wooden boats, Indonesia dominated the Open competition – billed as Men’s Races, by winning all three Gold Medals on offer, over 1000m, 500m and 250m. In the Women’s races, there were no Mixed Races, China too made a clean sweep of the Gold Medals. Completing the medals table were Myanmar and Korea in the Men’s 1000m with Silver and Bronze respectively and Indonesia and Thailand taking Silver and Bronze in the Women’s 1000m competition.
In the Men’s 500m, Myanmar won their second Silver Medal and China the Bronze. The Women’s Silver 500m medal went to Indonesia, with Thailand taking the Bronze, in a repeat of the 1000m result.
In the 250m races, held on Saturday 20 November 2010, the Men’s Silver went to Myanmar for the third time and the Bronze to China for the second time. In the Women’s 250m Indonesia were again the Silver medalists and the Bronze Medal went to Thailand for the third time. .
Comparing times with those from a World Championships is irrelevant as the boats used in Guangzhou were not IDBF Spec Racing Boats but It was very interesting to see Indonesia dominating the Games competitions as they did the last time they appeared in the IDBF World Championships back in 1997, in Hong Kong, when they won all the Gold Medals on offer. Since then a lack of finance has stopped them from racing at a World Championships.
The same situation has applied to Myanmar too, so it was good to see them back in the sport and winning medals too. Congratulations go to both Thailand, a new IDBF Member and to South Korea also, who were appearing at Championship level for the first time. Hopefully all these Teams will be able to find the finances to take them to next years World Championships in Tampa, USA, where they can truly compete against the best crews in the Dragon Boat World.