91原创鈥檚 D鈥橣yance team of dragon boat racers won silver at the 2023 Canadian Dragon Boat Championships.

Their showing at the championships, held in Welland, Ontario, at the Welland International Flat Water Centre July 20 - 23 qualified the team, whose average age is 75, for the Club Crew World Championships in Ravenna Italy September 5-8 of 2024.

They competed as a 鈥渟hort鈥� team of 10 paddlers, plus steers person and caller, racing in a standard 20-person boat, in the recently-created Senior D 69-plus division.

Kathy Joyce, D-Fyance co-captain, is hoping the Ravenna championships 鈥渨ill have a Senior D division, but if not next year, we will try again and hope for a D division in the 2026 Club Crew World Championships. We have to start somewhere.鈥�

Last year in Montreal, when the new division first appeared, D-Fyance attended with a full crew of 20 paddlers plus caller and steers person and came home with a gold.

READ ALSO: A new Canadian age division for 69-plus dragon boaters is a win for 91原创鈥檚 D鈥橣yance team

Joyce noted the division exists because of the lobbying efforts of D-Fyance Captain Ruth Bedell, 鈥渨ho got over 60 women to come out and try Dragon boating [in 2027 and] out of those she got around 24 signed up for the racing team.鈥�

A 鈥溾�� was created by Dragon Boat Canada 鈥渋n recognition of the determined work that Ruth has undertaken to have the Senior D category viable across Canada and established at the Canadian Dragon Boat Championships.鈥�

At the time Bedell talked about the next step: having the Senior D 69-plus division recognized internationally, ideally in time for the world championships in Ravenna, Italy.

Joyce said 鈥渋t has been quite a journey competing in regattas all over the lower mainland, Vancouver Island and the interior, mainly racing teams younger and more experienced than us, going to Trinidad and coming home with a bronze medal but also having fun.鈥�

Paddler Trudy Eibensteiner expressed her gratitude to be a part of 鈥渢his incredibly unique senior team.鈥�

鈥淭he energy and determination of these strong women is so amazing to me,鈥� Eibensteiner said. 鈥淥ld age is a blessing to show a strength and determination to make a difference to who we are . I love my age because of these women.鈥�

Eibensteiner is one of the newer members of the team, who joined D鈥橣yance last year after her daughter 鈥� who paddles on one of the younger teams 鈥� urged her to join.