Crews triumph in damp Bergen despite rain on their Crew Parade
The crews refused to be beaten by the weather and paraded through the streets of Bergen despite persistent rain. Many crews didn’t even bother to dress in waterproof clothing but celebrated their ships in the traditional way with music, noise, whistles, bells, rattles and cheers. The crews paraded down the Bryggen with hundreds of people watching them and the ships themselves giving them a cheer with a volley of ships’ wistles as they passed.
When they finally reached Torgallmenningen, the central square where the sports prize giving was to be held, the rain finally stopped and the sun even made a brief appearance. Sports events held during the days in Bergen had been a football tournament, which was won by Cuauhtemoc (Mexico), a table tennis competition, won by Oleg Ivashkin of Akela (Russia) and a tug of war, again won by Cuauhtemoc
Each of the prize winners was awarded a guitar, as the city of Bergen wanted them all to become shanty singing ships and encourage singing.
Other sports winners were Lietuva (Lithuania) who won the Street Basketball, Capitan Miranda (Uruguay) who won the Beach Volley Ball and Picton Castle (Cook Islands) who won the Viking Ship rowing competition. An individual competition was held which involved hill walking up the hills behind Bergen. This was hotly contested but the male competition was finally won by Tim Keinwicz, of Morning Star of Revelation (UK) with the female winner being Alison McGill, from Trinovante (UK).
Two other awards were given, firstly to the ship which made the best entrance to Bergen. This was awarded to Sorlandet (Norway) which had made a dramatic entrance with the crew manning the yards and singing shanties. The second award was given for the best crew in the crew parade, and that was awarded to Asgard II (Ireland).
Tonight the crews will enjoy their crew party while the city continues to party in its own way with music and shanty singing on every corner.
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