KUWAIT CITY, April 30: The mighty Hungarians did it again, barely missing out on a treble in a dominant showing Friday in the highly successful staging of the First Q8 Raft Competition 2010 organized by the Kuwait Rafting Competition (Q8RC) at the Hilton Kuwait Resort beach 5 area. Racing under the Café Organica banner, the mighty Hungarians finished first in the Mixed and Women’s competition clocking 4 minutes 57 seconds and 5 minutes twenty seconds respectively, while losing out by a hair’s breadth - 4.43 to 4.41 - to the formidable Honda Pilot team in the Men’s finals; with the British Institute for Vocational Training (BIVT) team coming in at 4.46 to finish in third place.

Women’s Raft Race champions Cafe Organica Mighty Hungarians

Men’s Raft Race champion - Honda Pilot team

There was a bit of confusion in the Mixed race with the team that initially finished second with a time of 5 minutes flat, the Honda CRV team getting disqualified after it was established they came in through the wrong gate at the finish thus, giving the second spot to BIVT who timed in at 5.06 while the Honda Odessey team that clocked 5.07 was elevated to third position in the final standings. In the Women’s race, the teams were tightly bunched midway through the final leg but the mighty Hungarians switched on the turbo, the water churning in their wake as they paddled furiously to cross the finish line first at 5.20, followed by the two Honda teams - Civic and City, who figured in a photo finish in 5.26 and 5.27 respectively.

Mixed race champs - Cafe Organica Mighty Hungarians
 

In the blue riband Men’s final event, the Honda Pilot team briefly trailed the mighty Hungarians at sound of the horn but soon caught up with the latter shortly before the halfway mark in the outward leg, making good time with precision rowing and superb work by the steersman to nose ahead by a paddle’s length on the homestretch and went to work as the Café Organica and BIVT teams breathed down their necks, and held on to win by the narrowest of margins finishing at 4.41 to the mighty Hungarians’ 4.43 and BIVT’s 4.46.
Five of the ten teams in the Men’s group with the best times made it through to the finals with Honda Pilot winning their heat with a time of 4.58 sec, BIVT clocked 5.02 to win heat two, Café Organica Mighty Hungarians timed 5.04, Honda Accord 5.08 and British School of Kuwait 5.12.
The five Women’s teams went straight to the finals while in the Mixed group, the mighty Hungarians, Honda CRV, BIVT, Honda Odessey and Fly Dubai 2 earned a trip to the finals with times of 5.04, 5.13, 5.15, 5.22 and 5.35 sec respectively.
After the raft competition heats was concluded, the volleyball and football tournaments started with the some of the rowing teams, like Fly Dubai, Honda, American University of Kuwait, etc, taking part, followed by lunch break where everyone enjoyed the plentiful food and free drinks like the new Lauretana brand of Italian natural and sparkling water, and Red Bull energy drinks.
In the Men’s plate competition, the AUK team, who finished out of the standings in the Men’s race after getting roughed up by choppy seas, finally got their act together in calm seas in the afternoon to finish first, ahead of the Cool Britannia and Schlumberger Penguins who finished in that order.
When ask to explain the secret of their dominant showing, Mighty Hungarians’ team captain Noemi Pacska said everything boils down to hard work, commitment and dedication on the part of each member, and said they have been practicing for the past four weeks.

“However, I would like to add that we are not always complete during practice times owing to our different work schedules, but each one of us sees to it we get enough workout done to hone and condition our physical capabilities.” Noemi also intimated that the calm weather in the afternoon when they took to the water also played a factor in their win. She also said everything they did was not all about winning but to have fun and enjoy the camaraderie of everyone in the other competing teams. Asked if she expected her team to win coming into the competition, she flashed a grin while nodding her head. Asked if they find the inflatable dinghy that was the official raft used in the races much better than the rafts made of welded barrels they have been using before, she said she finds the old rafts more exciting and easier to handle despite the weight. “Actually, because of its light weight, we were having some difficulty controlling them not to mention, our awkward position in rowing, which puts a heavy strain on our backs,” she said.

“The secret - if you may call it, of our success, is that the core of our team - about 7-8 of us, have been together for 10 years already, so we are able to communicate on the same wave length all the time, and we aim to defend our title next year, God willing,” she concluded. Bela Bottyan, the Men’s and Mixed teams’ skipper, said that exhaustion played a part in their defeat to the Honda Pilot team. “Most of us have been rowing for both teams and we can only do so much in one day. However, I will not take anything away from the Honda team, because they did a superb job and deserved to win. We’ll just try to come back and do better next year,” he added. Asked how he felt at narrowly missing out on a treble, he said he and the rest of his teammates were a bit disappointed, but, “two wins out of three is not bad and more than what we could have bargained for, but three would have been a dream come true!” he exclaimed.

Samer Abu Dagga, co-captain of the Men’s rowing champion Honda Pilot team, said that they did not expect to win after the tough challenge by the mighty Hungarians. “Actually, we were having problems with our raft as it was springing a leak, and with the extra weight, it was extremely difficult given the awkward rowing positions we had, that’s why our victory was sweeter to savor,” he added. He also complained about the difficulty in steering the lightweight raft because an off-tempo paddling by anyone among the team would veer them off course and a wrong move in trying to compensate would result in the boat going around in circles, like what happened to some of the teams that finished way, way far behind. In the land sports events, the Tamor team beat team Fly Dubai in the volleyball final to emerge champions. Fly Dubai made up for that loss by bagging the top plum in beating Honda in the football final, in the day’s final event.

Final results:
Men’s Raft Race: Champion -  Honda Pilot team; First Runner-up: Café Organica Mighty Hungarians; 2nd Runner-up: British Institute for Vocational Training.
Mixed Raft Race: Champion - Café Organica Mighty Hungarians; First Runner-up: British Institute of Vocational Training; 2nd Runner-up: Honda Odessey.
Women’s Raft Race:  Champion - Café Organica Mighty Hungarians: First Runner-up: Honda Civic; 2nd Runner-up: Honda City.

Men’s Plate Race: Champion - American University of Kuwait; First Runner-up: Cool Britannia; 2nd Runner-up: Schlumberger Penguins.
Special prizes were also given to the winners in: Best Dressed Team - Wireline Sharks; Best Effort - American University of Kuwait; Best Trained Team - Honda; Best Sponsor - British School of Kuwait.
The participating teams: Men’s Group - Honda Pilot, Honda Accord, Schlumberger Penguins, Café Organica Mighty Hungarians, Fly Dubai, BIVT, Cool Britannia, AUK, Hilton Resort Team, BSK.

Mixed Group: Honda CRV, Honda Odessey, Wireline Sharks, Café Organica Mighty Hungarians 1, Café Organica Mighty Hungarians 2, Fly Dubai 1, Fly Dubai 2, BIVT, Gunner 1, AUK.
Women’s Group: Honda Civic, Honda City, Café Organica Mighty Hungarians, Fly Dubai, BIVT.
The organizing committee was headed by Julius Barany and Khaled Al Hussain, while the event host was Ms. Patricia Whelan of BSK.

Sponsors of the Q8 Raft Competition 2010 are: Honda, Mutawa Al Kazi, AUK, Qualitynet, Kuwait Development & Trading Co, BSK, Arab Times, British Institute of Vocational Training, Hibo, Schlumberger, Kuwait Times, Al Sanabel Al-Thahabeyh Trading & Contracting, Ali Alghnim & Sons Group of Companies, Fly Dubai, Sebamed, New Honda CRV and Legends Corporation.