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BAD Strikes Silver in the Desert |
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Written by John Herrera
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Wednesday, 11 April 2007 |
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 John
TEMPE - The Bay Area Dragons season began with a bang at the end of March as the BAD I mixed crew took second place overall in an ultra competitive fourth annual Arizona Dragon Boat Festival. The only blemish on an otherwise perfect two days of racing in the desert was BAD's loss in the final heat to last year's west coast World Dragon Boat championship representative San Diego. Aside from that, BAD left everybody else in its wake en route to a hard earned silver medal.
The first race of the weekend saw BAD matched up against USC, an up and coming college team that would have loved nothing more than to pull off a surprise upset in the first heat. USC's hopes would have to wait until the college round as BAD, behind valiant efforts of Luis Bacayo, Mandy Auyoung, and Sue Gok, would open water on their college foes en route to the victory. What was even more impressive about this first victory in the first heat is that BAD raced with only 18 paddlers, two short of the full compliment of 20, and didn't miss a beat!
The second race of Saturday featured BAD going up against its nemesis the Los Angeles Racing Dragons, otherwise known as LARD. LARD has had BAD's number lately as they finished ahead of BAD in San Francisco and Long Beach last year. With revenge on everyone's mind, LARD didn't stand a chance as BAD, behind the efforts of Steve Yan, Cecilia Pang, Alvin Wang, Dan Folk, and Kurt Berger annihilated their Southern California foes. The two successful races on Saturday kept BAD in the hunt for the medal round on Sunday.
The third race of the weekend and first race of Sunday for BAD I featured a semi final versus San Diego. BAD was very excited, and not the least bit intimidated about going up against San Diego for a couple of good reasons. First of all, San Diego would make a good measuring stick for BAD to see how it could do against a team that represented the United States at last year's dragon boat championships. Second, BAD had enjoyed a lot of success against San Diego at last year's Long Beach dragon boat race as they beat San Diego three times in San Diego's tune up for the World games in Toronto. The win over San Diego in Long Beach last year had marked the second time in three weeks that BAD had defeated a team that was headed to Toronto as BAD had also defeated San Francisco's Toronto bound Dragon Warriors in Fremont; therefore, BAD is no stranger to knocking off world class competition and couldn't wait to do it again in this semifinal against San Diego. The race got off to a brilliant start as BAD left the start line like a heat seeking torpedo. With the inspired drumming of Emmie Yang, and frantic paddling of Norm Gok, Wanda Fong, Val Ogi, and Justin Lien, BAD was gliding down the race course and was neck and neck with San Diego. The finish was too close to call. After an extensive look, it was determined that BAD had fallen short by a mere two tenths of a second. Despite the loss, BAD was not deterred as it would get another crack at San Diego in the finals.
The finals featured BAD, San Diego, Los Angeles Racing Dragons, and the Arizona Gila Dragons. At the midway point BAD and San Diego were battling it out for first place as LARD and Gila Dragons couldn't keep up. Unfortunately, BAD, still reeling from having to wait for half an hour in the sun for their boat, were not able to overtake San Diego at the finish line. BAD did easily defeat LARD and Gila Dragons en route to a very well deserved silver medal. One factor in the final outcome may have been the fact that San Diego was able to board their boat first, paddle to the start line, and rest for 30 minutes in the shade of an overpass while BAD had to wait for half an hour at the marshaling area in the hot Arizona sun, paddle the 500 meters to the start line, and then begin the race less than two minutes after finally approaching the start line.
Overall it was a wonderful weekend for BAD. In addition to the success of BAD I, BAD II also was successful as they finished eleventh overall, which was good enough for a bronze medal in the B division. The highlight for BAD II though came in the 1000 meter race when they crossed the finish line in front of the Los Angeles Thunder Dragons, and the Los Angeles Racing Dragons to chants of BEAT LA, BEAT LA. BAD II was inspired by paddling from Felicia Ordaz, Gary Phipps, Paul Ortega, Achim Karger and Luis Bacayo. Bacayo paddled all weekend for both BAD I and BAD II. Gold's Gym later reported seeing Luis crash their Southern California work out facilities after the conclusion of the medal ceremony.
-JH
Photos by Justin Lien
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