Posted on Thu 22 Jul 2010 at 11:34 by
Shakira Hylton From Dan Jones, VP Sports & Societies
Tuesday night at Docklands Water Sport Centre saw University of Greenwich Students take on local businesses & community groups in Canary Wharf for the coveted Dragon Trophy, and in the process raise money for the youth water sports programme. The programme provides opportunities for local children to come try or improve their skills in sports such as sailing, windsurfing, kayaking and canoeing. We entered two teams and they had to race each other in a qualifying heat; Greenwich 2 (aka the Greenwich Floaters) put up a valiant effort but all eyes were on the Greenwich 1 team (aka The Greenwich Divers) from that point on who put in a storming performance, setting their stall out early.
Qualifying as one of the six fastest teams, they lined up for the final as the pre-match favourites with the fastest time throughout the competition. This was an amazing achievement as none of the team had ever been in a boat and only over the past few weeks had undergone training sessions at the centre. Team confidence was boosted at their final training session on Monday evening when the head coach (of previously undefeated teams) switched to training the University side and our boys didn't let him down, coming first place beating the two year champions by seconds! Greenwich now becomes the holders of the Dragon Trophy with our name proudly etched alongside the previous winners. We are the first university to win the Dragon in its history; we hope it settles in well at Greenwich as we plan to win for the next coming years.
What a wonderful end to a successful year under the banner of Team Greenwich - from Bungee Jumping to Dragon Boat Racing with some Football, Rugby, Netball and lots of societies in between shows we are a Team and now we can do it all on land and sea.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the friends of the Students' Union - without them, much wouldn’t have been possible this year. They are: - The Vice Chancellors Group, The Alumni Office; The Office of Student Affairs; GET; AWP; and all the schools who have helped us this year – once again a big thank you from us and all our members.