Team USA Senior C Crews Dominate in Thailand

Michael Boyd, Head Coach and Captain of Colorado’s Phantom Dragons / Pink Phantoms dragon boat crew, recently returned from the IDBF Dragon Boat World Championships in Thailand with a handful of gold medals.  Boyd raced as a member of the Team USA Senior C Open crew, an elite group of 60+ year old athletes who emerged victorious in every heat they raced in, capturing gold at each distance category (2000-meters, 1000-meters, 500-meters and 200-meters).  The crew also set a World Record for Senior C competitors at 1000-meters.  The Senior C Mixed and Women’s crews were similarly dominating; the Mixed paddlers won four gold medals, and the Women captured three golds and a bronze.

For dragon boaters, the IDBF Dragon Boat World Championships is the pinnacle event – the equivalent of what the Olympic games represent to more conventional sports.  Winning in Thailand was the culmination of a very extensive and competitive tryout and training process.  The Senior C Crews’ formal training calendar began with well-attended tryout camps in California (October, 2018) and Florida (January, 2019), followed by a week-long training camp in April for those who were selected to the team.  The final two months included “Train & Race” camps in Ottawa (June, 2019) and Long Beach, California (July, 2019) before departing for Thailand in mid-August for several more days of training/acclimation prior to the races.

The stellar performance of the Team USA Senior C crews at the 2019 IDBF World Championships took the international dragon boating community by surprise, as the senior divisions have historically been dominated by crews from Canada.  Congratulations to Michael Boyd and the rest of the Team USA Senior C paddlers – IDBF Dragon Boat World Champions!

•  Senior C Open 200-Meter Race 1

•  Senior C Open 200-Meter Race 2

•  Senior C Open 500-Meter Race 1

•  Senior C Open 500-Meter Race 2

•  Senior C Open 1000-Meter Race 1

•  Senior C Open 1000-Meter Race 2

•  Senior C Open 2000-Meter Race

A video following the 2019 USA Senior C National Dragon Boat paddlers in their quest for gold at the 2019 IDBF World Dragon Boat Championships in Pattaya Thailand is at this link:

•  Miracle in Thailand