PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – The Philippine team made a huge wave in the standard boat 200 meters events, bagging four golds, a silver and a bronze in the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships at the beautiful Baywalk here on Friday, Nov. 1.
 

With the scenic mountain range of Palawan serving as the backdrop to the morning competitions, the Filipinos began the day with back-to-back gold medals in the mixed senior and 40+ masters categories before the Nationals followed it up with a silver and a bronze in the men’s open and women’s seniors events.

The hosts then ended the standard boat 200m races strong with two more golds this time in the 40+ masters open and women’s event.

The mixed seniors team, which set the tone for the Filipinos’ impressive start on the second day, won the first gold medal, clocking in 47.07 seconds to beat Canada and Individual Neutral Athletes which settled for silver and bronze with 48.69s and 49.03s respectively.

Eager to finally barge into the gold medal column, the national team picked up the pace and sliced through the water with fast and strong strokes entering the last 100m where they finally created some sort of separation from the rest of the pack.

“May small changes lang ginawa namin imbis na power launch ginawa namin pick ups so parang huminga lang kami ng kaunti and then all the way na kami. Effective naman nakakuha tayo ng gold. Gitgitan lang and then all out na,” said team captain OJ Fuentes.

While glad to deliver the country’s first gold, the PH paddlers remained focused on the task at hand especially with the small boat 200m and 500m races, both of which are part of the qualifiers for the 2025 World Games, still coming up.

“Masaya pero di pa tapos yung mission, marami pang events. At least hindi na na-zero kumbaga pang high morale na kami nakakuha na kami ng gold. Goal natin madagdagan pa yung medals natin,” he added.

The 40+ masters mixed team, on the other hand, edged the Czech Republic by a hairline to cop the country’s second gold in the meet. 

At each other’s neck in the last 50m of the race, the Filipinos mustered all of their strength with their boat’s dragon head touching the finish line first with 49.41 sec —  a second earlier than the Czech’s 50.84s. Hungary came in third after clocking 52.12s.

Meanwhile, the 40+ masters open and women’s team bested their foes to rack up the country’s gold to four.

The open team registered 55.22s to beat Hungary (50.23s) and Singapore (50.46s) while the women’s crew was a full boat ahead of its lone opponent Canada with 55.22s against the latter’s 1:00.17.

The seniors open team, which finished silver, timed 47.59s, behind runaway winner Thailand which had 40.37 and ahead Hong Kong which clocked 47.76. The seniors women’s team added a bronze after a 50.48 sec finish, behind Thailand (49.41s) and Individual Neutral Athletes (50.45) which bagged the gold and silver, respectively.

After the PH paddlers’ two silvers and four bronzes on the opening day, the Nationals have now racked up their medal haul to four golds, three silvers and five bronzes.