Sarah's European Dragonboat Championship journey

Hey, my name is Sarah, I'm from Liverpool and I have recently been selected to represent Great Britain in the Premier Dragonboat Squad, competing in the European Nations Championships in Czech Republic in July!

I feel incredibly honoured to represent Great Britain and immensely proud to have this opportunity. Unfortunately, even as a selected GB athlete, there is no financial support available unlike other sports thus requiring individuals to solely fund themselves. This is why I have sought to set up a gofundme. I need help to fund training weekends in the UK, kit, accommodation, race fees, insurance, food and travel. Your support would mean the world in helping me achieve being able to compete on the European stage.

I started dragonboating, with my home club Amathus, February last year to help my mental health due to suffering with severe depression for a few years. I've had counselling which gave me a foundation of support but I can honestly say that joining a team sport such as dragonboating has been monumental in accelerating my mental wellbeing, confidence and personal development.

From early on I really wanted to focus on improving my technique so I also started training in the outrigger canoes that my club also provides in addition to training in the dragonboat.

- My new home from home

- Outrigger canoes for individual development

It was in these early stages that a friend I'd made in the club, who was in the process of her own GB journey, made a comment about seeing potential in me and told me she thought I could make the squad in the future. I thought by future that it meant a good few years down the line, as I knew many other sports require athletes to dedicate years to training. My actual initial thought though was "hahah you crazy?!" and also me being me, back then I didn't really have that much belief in myself, I just paddled because I'd come to really enjoy the sport and for the added therapy. Her comment did stick at the back of my mind though..

Come May, the British Dragonboat Association 2023 racing season started. This was my first time getting to experience what it was like competing in a dragonboat race. I was in the Women's crew, we won 1st place in the 200m and oh. my. god. it was such a euphoric and exhilarating first racing experience!

Paddling back to the pontoon after our win!

Since then I've competed in all of the BDA league races, with our club bagging a considerable amount of trophies and plates and our end of season National Championship competition where an incredible attendance of 19 clubs participated and with us taking home 8 trophies!

It was also over this period that I started to really toy with the idea of whether it actually could be possible for myself to attempt getting into the GB Squad for the year after, this was also in conjunction with thoughts of "Come on now Sarah, don't get ahead of yourself" and "Be realistic" so I spent some time reflecting... Finally thinking that I'd had such crappy years before this, I really wanted to do something to challenge myself mentally and physically, to see if I could. For me the prospect of failing something has also been a huge barrier to seeking out new things, I wanted to change the narrative for myself and just do something that I thought there could be a big possibility of me not being successful.

This was were I really ramped up my training with an additional 3-4 gym sessions a week, focussing on a strength and conditioning plan with the help of my now really good friend from my club (the one who mentioned GB to me at the beginning!)

From October-January the British National Training Squad (BNTS) held athlete development camps which I attended. Attending these sessions alone was an experience in itself and helped me further develop my paddling technique to take back to my club and to prepare myself for trials in March (just a couple of weeks ago!) and which I qualified, much to my disbelief!!!

It honestly really feels like more than a year ago that I started paddling as well as thinking that a year is not that long at all.

Having achieved what I thought was impossible for myself, it would mean so much to receive support for my journey. Any donation big or small would be really appreciated.

As a token of my appreciation, I will be posting updates and sharing my journey as a GB athlete!

Sarah xx