By REYNALD MAGALLON
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – The Philippine Dragon Boat team maneuvered away from its usual route toward the docking area to get close and wave to the huge Filipino crowd watching through the one kilometer stretch of the Baywalk here.
They raised their paddles and the passionate Palaweños responded with loud cheers.
They certainly have a lot to celebrate for as the Filipinos already recorded their best performance in the world meet in just two and a half days of the competitions.
A huge medal haul in the afternoon events on Friday, Nov. 1, as well as another impressive start to the third day of the competitions already assured the Nationals their biggest medal haul in their four appearances in the dragon boat worlds.
The PH paddlers had four more golds, five silvers and one bronze during the afternoon races to add to the four golds, one silver and one bronze during the 200-meter races in the morning session, hiking the second day haul to a total of eight golds, six silvers and two bronzes.
Showing no signs of fatigue, the Nationals pushed hard at the start of the third day races, adding a gold in the small boat 40+ masters mixed 200m race and three silvers in the small boat 40+ masters open and women in the 200m events and junior mixed small boat 500m.
The partial and unofficial medal tally as of Saturday, 12 noon, had the hosts already with nine golds, 11 silvers and six bronzes – already enough to shatter their previous best finish of five golds and two silvers with still one and half day left to the four-day tournament.
And the PH paddlers did it despite the unpredictable weather conditions as they paddled through the choppy waters, low tide and heavy downpour in Day 2 before racing on humid morning in Day 3.
“We are training here for almost six weeks and the weather is quite similar so it was okay although nahirapan lang kasi low tide din especially sa ating men’s medyo, nasa fifth lane tayo so medyo mababaw so it really mattered on our performance,” said national team coach Duch Co.
So satisfied with the performance of her wards that even Co admitted that she already lost count of the medal tally.
“Di ko na na-count today kasi medyo focused lang dun sa performance nila. Honestly, para akong nanalo ng gold sa performance ng mga athletes. I’m really happy with the time. I’m really happy with their movement on the boat,” said Co.
“I’m really excited for the preparations for the SEA games,” she added.
So far, the 40+ and 50+ Masters category proved to be a gold mine for the Filipinos, winning a total of six in the standard boat 200-meter open, mixed and women events, small boat women’s 200m and standard boat 500m open and women’s events.
The other two golds came from junior small boat mixed 200m and standard boat mixed 200m.
