Dragon Boat West

Man ...I guess there is always a way in if you really want to go

 The story seems to go that this team ( the hammerheads ) did not race -off ( knowing that they probably would  not win ) so they decided it to enter as a team from another country

 Since their team has some Jamaican Chinese on its crew they have decided to entry as a team representing Jamaica ......seems they thought they sneaked by until it recently became known .This team is infact a team all living in Ontario , I believe the Toronto area , but racing for Jamaica under the name Kingston DBC and will be wearing Jamaican colors in their uniforms  .........how funny is that? ....haha

 What this does is allow them to race with a completely stacked team if they so chose because they do not fall under DBC rules and the 2 premier paddler rule does not apply because they don't race for a canadian team ....... lol ..smart thinking or what ?..

 So much for regional race-offs...........lol.If you think you can't win a race-off then  just look back at your ancestry and maybe next time race for Iceland or maybe Afghanistan ...lol

 It appears this weekend the Hammerheads are racing under the name Miami DBC at the Toronto Island race and it appears they are beating Team SRS .... some of the team appears to have relatives in Maimi ....sounds like someone completely changed their crew and stacked it ..this should be very interesting if DBC finds out ..what will they rule ?

 Here's a portion of what one of team members said on the hammerheads website : check it out

 



 Your thoughts? Should they be allowed to race at the worlds representing another country ?

Think of Canadian Olympic calibre athletes who have competed for other countries.

Dale Begg-Smith - born and raised in Canada competed initially as a Canadian Junior, but left the sport.- In his mid 20's he trained and competed for Australia, winning gold in Moguls in Torino.

Isabelle Duchesnay her brother Paul Duchesnay were a successful pair in the sport of Ice Dancing, winning a world championship in 1991 and an Olympic silver medal in 1992.
Born in Quebec, they later decided to compete for France, their mother's country of birth.

Mary Pierce was born in Canada, to a French mother and American father, she competed in tennis as a Canadian Junior, then in 1990, switched to represent France - She has appeared in 6 Grand Slam singles finals, winning two of them.

Then there is also a promising men's tennis player (whose name escapes me), competing first for Canada, then because he was lower in the depth chart for Canada's David Cup team and World competions, jumped to compete for England/ UK.

The big questions are: 
Are the paddlers and team recognized by the Jamaican dragon boat association? 
Is there a Jamaican dragon boat association? 
Is it recognized by IDBF?
Do the paddlers have Jamaican citizenship?

I can see an argument, *maybe*, if each and every single one of those paddlers have a connection to Jamaica but I highly doubt that.  That's just not very sportsmanlike imho.  As paddleboy points out, what's the point of having regional race-offs if you can get a couple of paddlers on the boat who have some tenuous connection to another country?

Also, since this is the World Club Crew, shouldn't the crew be from that country?  It's one thing to say that they're going to represent Jamaica but this isn't the right competition for that.  This is the Club Crew Championships...they're representing their club...and their club is based in Toronto.

Hmm...

hmm Remember the movie "Cool Runnings" about the Jamacan bobsleigh team ? At least they were all Jamacan ,, just for fun , apply the antics in that movie to a whole dragon boat team, maybe they are just not taking any chances !  :lol:

agreed on the club crew point.  they train and practice at their club which is in canada.  i would think for the World Championships there'd be more grey area for who they could "represent".   in that situation, if they were jamaican citizens and wanting to paddle for team jamaica, sure.  but this is all about representing a club, not a country. 

I don't disagree with Colossus & Swordfish on the Club Crew point, but I'll play the devil's advocate.....

If the Jamaican spot was open, with no Jamaican based crew contesting it, and the Hammerheads have the endorsement of the Jamaican DB authority there that is recognized by the IDBF...what is the problem if that spot was open anyways?

If the Hammerheads are true in their intent to "highlight & grow the sport in Jamaica" and their entry at CCWC actually does that. If they actually make the effort to support growth of the sport in Jamaica so that eventually there is a "legitimate" Jamaican team that will race off at CC's, maybe then their entry at this year's CC's is not a bad thing...

If however, they are merely opportunists and do nothing to give back to the sport and/or try to grow the sport in Jamaica then maybe "closing the loophole", or requiring that Clubs at CC's be based in the country or region they are suppose to represent is something that the IDBF may have to look at in the future.

Just to get a few facts cleared... The Hammerheads did go to the Welland race-off last year and any of the top six teams could have made it. So it's not like they didn't try. And they beat SRS Rouge at the Island this weekend because it's not the SRS national team. SRS sponsored the West Rouge dragonboat club, and they were a bunch of kids (under 20) that kicked ass to get to the A final! So no, they didn't stack their team to beat the real SRS team.

I don't know enough about how they got their way into the CCWC, so i can't comment. But if they didn't break any rules to race, then why not?! How often does the CCWC come to your hometown? You can't blame them, it's the organizers or whoever that needs to close the loop hole.

 If the Hammerheads did in fact race-off ( I wasn't 100% sure they did and I could not find a site that listed them as an entry in th race-off) and they lost then I would think they should not be allowed entry in the club crews as they did not win the right nor do any of the paddlers on the team actually live in jamaica .

 If you race for a club that is from that country and actually live there ..the entire team....then they should be allowed ...if you don't your out ..........it underminds the whole event and truely makes it unfair for all the other teams that wanted to race as well and lost .

 As a paddler I understand the want to be a part of the event and what it takes to make it there ....we all understood the rules going in and were willing to accept the outcome . By racing under the Jamaican entry is wrong .....they knew the rules and should have trained harder to win ......

from the club crew website....
their own club being a CANADIAN club, i dont' know how they should be able to get away with representing a DIFFERENT club outside of the country they practice in.  no, i didn't read the CCs rules to check for loopholes, i dont' have THAT much time on my hands.

dumb question, but no one has mentioned it so far...

What's IDBF doing about this, and will they close the loophole before/after the WCC?

So who want to join hop in a boat with me to respresent Togo or maybe Tibet or Nepal... Hey if the Hammerheads can do it why can't we?

i've got a british passport...  i'm not on a mixed team [yet]. 8)

Well Colossus I have an Italian passport, or the EU. Does that mean I can be a part of any European team then? BTW I am no longer going to the Club Crews regretably because of unforeseen circumstances. So I am only joking about joining another team. Sigh.....

People,

Remember this is club crew not country crew.  If they belong to the Kingston DBC then they have every right to go.  It does not matter what passport you have, it all depends on what club(s) you belong to.  For instance the HKPC was/is composed of a number of ex-pats, they don't have Chinese passports but they could enter the club crews if they wanted to under China (and the Chinese DB federation recognizes them)...I think the only restriction is how many teams come from each region/country, I think you are allowed 3 per country, could be wrong.

Now I don't agree with it but there is nothing wrong with it based on the rules set out by IDBF.  I do believe for the national teams there are stricter rules :-).

Tig

i wonder then if they'll be racing in the national time trials