South Alberta dragon boaters medal at worlds

By Lethbridge Herald on August 29, 2023.

From left, Romina Senneker, Liberty Fuents, Ella Veilleux, Sierra Smith, Mia Chalmet, and Linda Gilbert display their medals from the IDBF Herald Photo by Justin Seward World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Thailand .

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Dragonboat Association of Southern Alberta contingent on the Team Canada junior and senior division dragon boat teams brought home medals from the 16th annual  IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Thailand recently.

Mia Chalmet was one of four youth dragon boaters and was a part of the junior U18 team standard that raked in a gold for the 1,000 metre, a silver in the 2,000 metre, a silver in the 200 metre and gold in the 500 metre races.

“The experience was enlightening to say the least,” said Chalmet.

“I’ve never competed at the international level before. So that in itself was way different than anything I have experienced before. Actually, I’ve only competed in two kind (s) of festivals, one being the Lethbridge festival, just our local one, in June. And then the next one was the international competition in Pattaya. But just like representing my country and having that honour has been really great in general.”

Chalmet said there was definitely a language barrier with some of the countries.

“I remember I was going up to the Ukrainian youth team and they just wanted to trade everything with me,” she said.

“I traded one bracelet for a pin with one of them and then all of sudden there were like 10 of them just like surrounding me. And they were all just like we want to trade, but I was like I don’t have enough. So I had to like choose which people I wanted to trade with, which was not very nice. But anyways, I traded jerseys with the Australian team and the US team, both of which have a U18 team as well. So and that’s what I wanted to do going into the competition because the two teams that I did compete against were Australia and the US.”

Chalmet wasn’t too sure what to expect going to Thailand.

“I wasn’t sure of the layout of the competition,” she said.

“I’m fairly inexperienced when it comes to competitions. But we were guaranteed medals because there were only three teams that we were competing within our age division for the women’s teams specifically. The other two teams being the US and Australia. But  I definitely did not expect bringing home like this amount of medals. I was hoping for one gold. That’s all that I wanted. So being able to bring home two gold and two silver was really amazing.”

Liberty Fuentes was also on the U18 team and won the silver for the 2,000 metre and 200 metre women’s races and gold for the 1,000 and 500 metre races and received silver in both races the mixed boat did.

Ella Veilleux won U16 gold in the women’s 200, 500 and 2,000 metre and 200-metre mixed boat.

She got silver in the 500-metre mixed race.

Sierra Smith was also in the U16 category and won gold in the mixed 200-metre and the women’s 2,000 , 200 and 500 metre races.

Smith also captured silver in the 500 metre and bronze in the mixed 2,000 metre. 

Linda Gilbert was a member of the Team Canada Senior C standard women’s 59 plus dragon  boat team that captured gold in the one and two-kilometre, 500-metre and 200-metre races.

“It meant a lot to represent Canada and just the experience of seeing all the other athletes and para athletes across the world ,and racing against and watching them as well,” said Gilbert.

This was Gilbert’s first time on the world stage.

“For me it was a good experience not knowing what to expect,” said Gilbert.

“But I did have help from other athletes like Romina Senneker here, who’s previously attended, and so she was helpful in guiding me and what it was going to look like. But when you’re there, you’re really focused. So you’re fairly focused within the team and the races and that’s generally the experience that you get. There’s not a lot of time to wander around and visit with other athletes at that time.”

Gilbert said yeah you never know what you’re going to expect.

“We had some good teams that were pressuring us and so we had to perform well,” said Gilbert.

“Some of the races, you would come off and you wouldn’t know how you did because you’re so focused in your race. But then seeing the times and seeing how well you did, you know, pays off in the end and it was just exciting to hear your national anthem being played.”

Taber’s Senneker was with the Senior B 49 plus standard boat team and won gold in the 1,000 and 2,000-metre races and silver in the 200 and 500 -metre races.

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