Wow, what a controversy! It really is time to lay this to rest especially because the only people that truly know what happened during this race were those who were on the water. As a spectator, video watcher, or even a paddler you simply cannot know what is happening to all teams/boats during a race. There are too many factors in play aside from just the strongest/fastest team. I was there in the midst of it and from my perspective I can tell you for certain that there were many factors that contributed to the outcome of this race. What you can't see from the shore, video, or another lane is that this particular race posed a huge challenge especially to the middle lanes. It was extremly crowded resulting in huge chop, major steering corrections, two very near collisions, and the inability to grab water due to the huge chop (and yes I know, that's paddling). In the end it is the team that endures and crosses the finish line first that wins the race and that would be team SUCCESS. Congrats to them.
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