By LIAM TWOMEY
THREE years ago Narelle Lloyd didn’t know anything about Dragon Boat racing. But after a huge amount of hard work and dedication, the Hoppers Crossing resident returned home from the sport’s World Championships with three medals to her name.
Lloyd and her Australian team-mates took silver in the 500m and 1000m events as well as bronze in the 200m race.
“It was fantastic and something that I have never experienced before,” Lloyd said.
“You get to the start line and look out at the course and just feel like you can do it. Somehow you find something extra.
“It was good all round because it was our (Australia’s) best every medal tally. It was amazing.”
Australia finished the World Championships with 35 medals including 15 gold, 14 silver and six bronze.
“I was definitely surprised with how I went,” Lloyd said.
“It is really hard going into something like this that I haven’t been to before. You don’t know how good you are.
“The girls bonded really well together. We just missed out on gold quite a few times against Canada and there was nothing in it.
“We had a training camp beforehand and that really brought the whole team together.
“Because we are from all over Australia we don’t get to train together. We had four days of intense training.”
After taking a well-deserved break, Lloyd will get back into the new Dragon Boat racing season with her Maribyrnong-based club the Melbourne Flames in the coming weeks.
However, she already has one eye on adding a gold medal to her collection at the next World Championships in two years.
“Because we were so close in all of our races across the board it really gives you that motivation to go again,” she said.
