PUERTO PRINCESA. – Mission accomplished – and how!
The Philippines achieved another historic milestone, capturing the overall championship as the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships ended on a calm and sunny Sunday at the Puerto Princesa Baywalk course here.
A day after Filipinos paid their respects to their departed loved ones, Pinoy paddlers, performing before a lively hometown crowd, added two more gold, four silver and a bronze medal to their impressive overall tally of 11 gold, 19 silver and 16 bronzes to secure the overall title.
Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand took runner-up honors with eight golds while the AIN (Individual Neutral Athlete) squad finished third with a haul of six golds, three silvers and three bronzes in the meet supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and Tingog party list.
The host team won a hotly-contested masters mixed 20-seater standard boat 500-meter race in two minutes and 6.34 seconds, nosing out Singapore (2:06.73) while Germany was not too far behind in third (2:07.98) in the competition organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragon Boat Federation.
The Filipinos also emerged as runaway winners in the 40+ 20-seater women’s 2,000-meter standard boat event (10:42.31) over runner-up Canada (10:48.64) while had silvers in the 20-seater mixed standard boat 500-meter (1:58.13), 40+ 10-seater mixed 500-meter (2:19.45), 20-seater open (9:23.16) and 40+ 20-seater open 5,000-meter (9:34.47) races.
But the 20-seater mixed standard 500-meter race was most thrilling by far among the events as the hosts virtually led from start to finish until they were beaten in the last 10 meters by the hard-charging Ukrainians, who snatched the gold in a time of 1:57.51.
They also bagged a bronze in the 40+ 10-seater open 500-meter (2:15.93) event in the four-day tournament also supported by the Puerto Princesa City government led by Mayor Lucilo Bayron and Lacoste watches.
“We made history every day so I am very proud of our national paddlers and how we organized this big event sanctioned by the International Canoe Federation,” said PCKDF president Leonora “Lenlen” Escollante.
“This was truly a world-class event you have in Puerto Princesa and all we got was positive feedback from the countries that took part in the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships,” noted ICF Dragon Boat Commission chairman Dr. Wai Hung-Luk of Hong Kong.
“The participants were also impressed by the warm hospitality shown by the Pawaneños and expressed their desire to come back again here,” he said.
The next edition of the global dragon boat competition will be held in 2026 in Regina, Canada, with Canadian team delegation head Bev Anderson present during the handover ceremony at the the awarding rites.
