The 5th annual Sydney Harbour Challenge again saw crews from all over the world compete in the one of the main outrigger canoe events in the entire Australian race calendar.

And what a day it was! SOCCI had 3 crews racing, with the Masters Men and Senior Masters Men joining our Masters Women’s team on the water. The 22km course provided some challenging conditions with the 31-degree heat and the headwind all the way back making for a hard-fought race.

We had a great clean start and stayed on the tail of Outrigger Australia Senior Master’s crew until we had the opportunity of passing them well before Bradleys Head, then leading into a strong turn at the Luna Park half way buoy.

All the way to the finish

Nothing short of a heroic effort by our women’s crew had us fight for every inch of water over the last 800 meters to hold off a Master Women crew from Singapore all the way to the line.  It wasn’t until we hit the beach tired and exhausted afterwards that we realised our battle at the finish had seen us take gold in Master Women, and 12th over the line overall.

The Senior Masters Men’s crew had a good result seeing them finish in the overall top 25, whilst the Masters Men had their own epic battle to the line which saw them hit it almost sideways, .

Gotta love this sport.

By Sue Jones & Elaine Hall