Written about us

First Year of Dragon Boater Firemen from Paks

Firemen from ATOMIX Kft. of the Nuclear Power Plant of Paks assembled a dragon boat crew this spring winning first places one after the other despite that many of them were first totally innocent of how to even paddle. Engine Chief Szilárd Papp, a founding member and member of the management of the re-established Dragon Boat Club of Paks, made efforts to mobilize his fellow-firemen who were glad to meet this challenge seen as another opportunity for demonstrating their fitness.

Firemen making up the hard core are József Bazsonyi, István Bertalan, József Farkas, Roland Fehér, Zoltán Gyetvai, József Horváth, Frigyes Lapp, Zsolt Lesták, István Matus, Szilárd Papp, István Puxler, Ferenc Rodenbücher, Tamás Szabó and Tibor Varga. Team captain Szilárd Papp is proud of the crew and their great achievements. He told us that they, as a brand new team, only had a few weeks left before the Dragon Boat Festival in Győr to train but they were pushing on with so much zeal and enthusiasm as to reach in second at their very first race.

Then several other races followed during the year and there were no firemen’s dragon boat races with really skilled and experienced rivals where they, as beginners, could not reach in the first three. They also run under the colours of the Dragon Boat Club of Paks and met with another success. In summer they were invited to strengthen the crew of Hungarian Power Companies’ dragon boat – they did it and were among the first three boats.

2006 results:

As ‘Power Plant Firemen’:
3rd Dragon Boat Festival in Győr, 20/21 May, Military Cup (2nd place);
2nd Dragon Boat Festival in Székesfehérvár, 23/24 September, TEAM Cup (2nd place);
Under the colours of Dragon Boat Club of Paks:
Dragon Boat Festival of Tolna, 23 July (1st place);
4th Hungarian Dragon Boat Champs, 16 September (4th place);
In the Hungarian Power Companies’ dragon boat:
World Champs in Szeged, 20 August, Budapest Olympic Movement Cup (2nd place);
2nd Dragon Boat Festival in Székesfehérvár, 23/24 September, Céges Cup (2nd place).

They were training in the preparatory periods only before the races, which was quite difficult to schedule because of the rotating shifts. They were training in their boat, 12.5 m long including the head and tail decorations, on the Danube branch ‘Tolna’. 18 to 20 paddlers make up the crew plus a drummer and a boat setter. No doubt, our team had to fight its way to success as qualifying heats with four boats each to match their speed preceded finals. The course was 250 m long that our team made in appr. 1 minute.

Congratulations. Power Plant Firemen did a very good job indeed!

Mrs. Anna Lovászi
Tűzvédelem - 2006/10