Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival a hit at Benderson Park
The festival featured races and a ceremony in honor of those diagnosed with breast cancer
By
Ryan Kohn
| 3:03 p.m. July 10, 2021
East County
Sports
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Nathan Benderson Park hosted the 2021 Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday.Â
The event was filled with 500-, 200- and 2,000-meter races and featured a ceremony dedicated to paddlers diagnosed with breast cancer. Participants took a flower and held it above their heads before tossing it in the water. Dragon boat is a popular sport and support system for people fighting breast cancer; Sarasota's Survivors in Sync team is filled with breast cancer survivors.Â
Survivors in Sync raced at the festival, as did the Nathan Benderson Park Dragons, in both the Sport and Community divisions.Â
As is tradition, dragon heads and tails gilded each boat at the Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival, held at Nathan Benderson Park on Saturday.
Carla Cwiertnia and JoAnn Moore, Lakewood Ranch residents, row for Survivors in Sync. They competed at the 2021 Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival. While Moore is a veteran, Saturday's festival was Cwiertnia's first race.
The Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival's athlete village sprawled across Nathan Benderson Park's Regatta Island on Saturday.
Sarasota's Survivors in Sync 200-meter dragon boat team stretches before a race at the Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival on July 10, 2021, at Nathan Benderson Park.
Photo by Ryan Kohn
A few fans decided to get a view from the Nathan Benderson Park finish tower at the Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival.
Sarasota's Survivors in Sync 200-meter dragon boat team paddled to a win against the Warriors on Water on Saturday.
The Survivors in Sync dragon boat team, alongside other Nathan Benderson Park teams, will compete at the 2023 USDBF Club Crew National Championships.
File photo
Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival participants held flowers aloft as part of a ceremony honoring paddlers diagnosed with breast cancer. The flowers were then tossed into the water.
Flowers floated on the water at Nathan Benderson Park following a ceremony at the Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival that honored paddlers diagnosed with breast cancer.
The NBP Dragons 200-meter team competes at the Sarasota International Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragons compete in both the Sport and Community divisions.
Audrey Bilotti and Abby Wolf row for the NBP Dragons community team. Both Bilotti and Wolf said they missed getting together in large groups to go paddling during the pandemic. Saturday's festival brought the magic back.
