We participated in the Singapore Dragon Boat Festival this year which was held on the 11th July & 12th July at Bedok Reservoir. For this 500m race, we fielded a 10 crew in the premium open category and another 10 crew in the senior open category. We also sent two 10 crew boats to race in the NTUC challenge Union race.
On the first day, our premium open team encountered strong opponents in the first heat like SIM Alumni, British Dragons and Singapore Prison Service and was on-par with them initially but lose out in the last charge and settled at the 5th position. However, we didn’t give up and fought harder in the repechage and managed to came in 2nd position, beating Tampines Changkat and Team Sabai. Fortunately, this allow us to qualify for semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, our team couldn’t surpass the performance of teams like Singapore Paddle Club (SPC), German dragons and Singapore Management University (SMU) and we were shy of one position to the Minor Finals base on timing.
On the second day, our senior 10 crew did their best in the single final heats competing with Taman Jurong, SAFRA and Kiyah-splashh. Despite not able to win, their fighting spirit was as strong as those raced in the premium open.
In the NTUC challenge race of 200m, team A and team B came in the 2nd and 3rd position respectively. There were some lost of composure and coordination initially compared to the winner team AUSBE who was consistent throughout. We beat Global Foundries and team HDBSU in terms of timing but there was much left for some self-reflection and future improvement.
This race has shown that we are a bit under-prepared given the relative short time frame and definitely need some rework in endurance training. It was overall a good learning experience for all especially the new paddlers.
U Dragons 