Sunday, August 26, 2007

Dragon boat records

Two crews have paddled their way to a world record for crossing the English Channel in a dragon boat. The male Brotherhood crew crossed from Dover to Calais in three hours 30 minutes, smashing the previous record of seven hours 45 minutes.

The female Sisterhood team was 12 minutes behind. But a third crew, who joined at the last minute, capsized. The Sisterhood crew became the first all-female team to cross the Channel in a dragon boat.

Ex-army officer Dicky Robinson, 31, from Wandsworth, south London, who was on the Brotherhood team, said: "It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for all of us. Just getting across there in itself is a great achievement."

The coastguard said the third boat is believed to have capsized just a mile off France. There were not thought to be any serious injuries, although medics treated two people for hypothermia, said the Sisterhood crew's Emma Sayle.

The Beauty v Brawn cross-Channel challenge was raising money for the Babes in Arms charity, which sponsors research into abnormalities in newborn babies, and the children's hospice charity, Chase.

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