Harbour domination a draw at Townie vs. Baymen punt race

It was a draw at Saturday's third annual Grand Punt Race in St. John's harbour.

The race pits townies and baymen against each other, and is held in support of the Narrows Group, an organization that works to preserve the entrance to the historic harbour.

• Rowers gearing up for Townies vs. Baymen punt race

With eight crews competing for harbour domination, race chair Mark Hiscock says this year's event was more popular than ever.

"Every year, we are getting bigger and bigger crowds hereat Harbourside Park," hesaid.

"I go around the course with the rowers, and you can see people lined off on the south side and around the harbourfront, so it's certainly growing really fast."

In previous years, men and women competed in separate races. But this year, the race committee upped the number of laps around the harbour to two, and had men and women competeat the same time.

"So we've made it a little bit harder on them this year," Hiscock said.

Rower Simone Lilly said having an additional lap meant sheand teammate Donna Connors had to strategize.

"Last year was such a sprint because it was just that one go around," said Lilly.

"This year, you kind of had to wrap your head around doing a sprint and keeping that momentum going to do it a second time. So, a little bit harder, but in a different way."

And it worked for them.Lilly and Connors, atownie team, took home first place in the women's category with a time of 49:22. Second place went to towniesMegan Fitzgerald and Kirsten McKay with a time of 102:41.

Meanwhile, thebaymen dominated the men's competition. Greg Boyd andKevin Purchase beat out townies Chris Neary and Craig Whittle with a time of 45:24.

Neary and Whittle finished closebehind, with a time of 46:34.