Colenorton Dragons

The Colenorton Dragons were founded in August 1992 from members of the Eton College Buildings Bursary and Maintenance Department. Initially, the Club was made up of building and related trade's staff, their families and friends. However, in a relatively short space of time the Club has grown and now welcomes anyone living locally who wants to give the sport a go.

The Club takes an active role in the local community, organising charity events for the RNLI, participating in the ‘Mega Break’ programme for local school children in the summer holidays, organising corporate entertainment and raising money for local charities and the community.

We have a good track record, winning the Scratch Crew competition at the National Grand Finals in Nottingham in our first year. In 1994 we had a very successful year becoming the UK National League Champions, the only club to qualify for all four Grand Finals at Nottingham winning a Gold in the 250 metre Mixed class, Gold in the 500 metre Mixed class, Silver in the Open 250 metre class and Bronze in the Open 500 metre class. We also represented Great Britain at the European Championships in Berlin attaining a commendable 5th place overall in the Mixed event.

In 1995 we were runners up in the UK National League, won Silver medals in the Open 250 metre and 500 metre Mixed classes and a Gold medal in the 250 metre Mixed class at the National Finals. We represented Great Britain at the European Championships in Nottingham coming 6th overall in the Open 250 metre class, 7th overall in both Mixed classes and 8th overall in the Open 500 metre class.

We were asked to represent Great Britain in 1996 at the first World Championship Finals in China, but unfortunately, we did not have sufficient sponsorship to fulfil what would have been a great honour.

In 1996, we won the National League Title again and came in the top three for the 250m and 500m Mixed Class, 250m and 500m Women's Class and 250m and 500m Open Class at the National Finals in Nottingham. We also took part in The Great River Race - a marathon 22 mile race from Ham Island, Richmond to Greenwich Docks, London and won the Paddle Power Section, coming 4^th overall out of 269 boats - Not bad for our first attempt!

In 1997, we came third in the National Finals for both the 250m and 500m Mixed Class Competition. We travelled to Duisburg in Germany for the European Championships and came home with 6^th and 7^th place in the 250m and 500m Mixed Class, respectively. We won The Great River Race, improving our time and coming 3^rd overall.

1998, a build up year and change of direction for the club, saw us getting a hat trick at The Great River Race, improving our time further. We have also finished in the top three for over 40 National League Events.

We look forward to representing Great Britain in future events in Canada at the Commonwealth Games and in the Olympics, should the sport be introduced.