Charities are winners in Dragon Boat Races at Wykeham Lakes

Twenty-two teams took part in the this year’s Dragon Boat Races, organised by the Rotary Club of Scarborough Cavaliers, with the main winner, as usual, being local charities.

Despite the weather the event attracted a big crowd.

Rotary Club President Jim Martin said : “We were really pleased with the turnout and the crowds were certainly entertained with some great races.

“This year we decided to run two finals – gold and silver - based on qualifying times and it proved to be a great success.”

The gold race was won by Fashionable Fitness, who took the winners’ trophy. Only Fools and Oars came a close second and Iron Warriors from the William Hare Group, last year’s winners, came third.

The silver race was won by Team Storm from Norton College, Maude`s Marauders pushed them all the way and third place went to Pinkney Grunwells Lawyers.

The money for local charities comes from paddlers collecting individual sponsorship, with the boat sponsorship going towards covering the costs of staging the event.

Each dragon boat is crewed by 16 paddlers, plus a drummer and they race over a 250-yard course in a series of heats with the fastest four teams reaching the gold and silver finals.

Times this year were very fast with the gold finalists covering the course in just over one minute.