By REYNALD MAGALLON
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY – The Philippine dragon boat team is not going to rest on its laurel, at least for now.
Coming off a surprising but dominant win in the ICF World Championships on Sunday, the Nationals are going to undergo another meticulous training for a more challenging and tougher event – the 2025 World Games in Chengdu.
It was a double celebration for the PH paddlers as they not only completed their best-ever finish in the world meet with their 11 golds, 20 silvers and eight bronzes for the overall title but also qualified to another prestigious competition along with nine other countries.
Behind the strong showing in the mixed 200-meters, 500m and 2000m – the three races where th qualification ranking was based – the Nationals finished within the Top 10 joining Hungary, Malaysia, Spain, Ukraine, Chinese Taipei, Czechia, Cambodia, and the Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN) from Russia.
Thailand, which finished second, and Indonesia were already seeded in the World Games while China, by virtue of being the host, already had an assured slot.
Even with the historic achievements for the PH paddlers, national team coach Duch Co is not the one to sit on her laurels with big tournaments coming up.
The Nationals can celebrate though, maybe on the night where they reigned supreme over the 26 other countries but work begins again immediately the next day.
“Months lang tayo nagprrepare and medyo nalate din tayo dun sa ibang military athletes so malaking adjustment din for the team but I’m happy how they performed. We know we’re going to improve more,” said Co.
As encouraging as the performance of the entire team, Co admitted that there’s still a lot to be polished with the team – something that they were able to pinpoint through the tough four-day stretch of the tournament at the City Baywalk.
And the most glaring for them, was they need more power to be able to compete to the world’s bests.
“We know where we are lacking. We know where we need to improve,” said Co.
“Better strength conditioning and more importantly is nutrition. I think that’s where we lack talaga na sobrang laki, proper supplementation,” she pointed out as her charges recorded 52.13 seconds for the fifth best time in the mixed 200m and a 9:46.34 finish for the 10th place in the mixed 2000m.
