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Kelowna  

Racing on dragons

It was all about fun, dragons and paddling hard this weekend at the 11th annual Kelowna Dragon Boat Festival.

About 30 teams and 700 athletes competed Saturday and Sunday in and around Tugboat Bay.

“This is an opportunity from dragon boaters from all across B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan to come, race against each other and have some fun,” said Len Brandolini, festival director and vice president of the Kelowna Dragon Boat Society.

Saturday's event was cut short when races had to be cancelled shortly after 10 a.m. due to wind.

“There were white caps and we could not race after that,” explained Brandolini. “It was too dangerous. There was risk of swamping.”

He said several of those races were rescheduled and Sunday was a success.

“Sunday has been just amazing, the weather has been great, it's been warm. The wind is good, races have gone on time, people are very happy,” said Brandolini.

He said this year they had the first visually impaired race, which was a honour to host. The race was held as one of the Kelowna teams is made up of about half visually-impaired athletes .

“We were really happy to have it,” said Brandolini. “Our dragon won and we were really excited about that. It was a chance for them to race against others on equal footing and they did great.”

He said the athletes also enjoyed the beer garden and DJ on both days, as well as several food trucks on site.

“It is a great group of people and they are having a lot of fun,” said Brandolini.

“We've had a great turnout, our organizing committee has been just wonderful to work with and our DJ has done an amazing job.”

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