Despite the unusual frequent haze condition this year, the 33rd Singapore River Regatta was able to proceed on the weekend of 31st October & 1st November with the blessing of clear weather after a heavy downpour a few days before. Our team participated this event in the categories of National Opens (12 crews), National Mixed (22 crews) for the first day and in the categories of National Women (12 crews) and National Senior Opens (12 crew) for the second day.
In the National Open category, we managed to came in first in the heats beating Japan dragons with a good timing of 1.02s, paving way to direct semi-finals. In the semi-finals, we came in 3rd position beating strong opponent Team Alumnua and Punggol Central but lagging slightly behind Home Team Sports.
Our 22 mixed crew did well in the first heat, came in 2nd position winning Japan dragons and Republic Polytechnics with a timing of 58.31s but fell short compared to AustCham Paddle club. In the repecharge race to attempt to qualify for semi-finals, our team fought hard and came in 1st and overcame other teams like German dragons, Tampines Changkat and Japan dragons. Despite 1st position, our timing wasn’t good enough to secure a second chance to semi-finals due to strong competitions.
Nevertheless, the performance on the first day is praiseworthy considering some of the paddlers comprised of new/novice paddlers that joined our team not long ago.
It has been 2 years since we sent a ladies team down to River Regatta. We are glad that we are able to form a ladies team and compete again this year. Our ladies came in 3rd position in the heats, beating Team Sabai (Zhenghua CSC) but falling behind TJ Seahawk and Moulmein CSC. In the repecharge race, we maintained our stellar performance and came in 2nd position, ending slightly behind Tampines East (2D) but overtaking Tampines United Paddlers (TUP) and REACH dragons (Sportscares). Every stroke counts and their never-say-die effort and attitude was clearly visible across the shore.
Our senior team competed hard with team ExxonMobil in the heats and came in 1st with a timing of 1.07s which qualified them for direct semi-finals. In the semi-finals, their fighting spirit really felt roaring across the water and their tremendous relentless effort allowed them to secure 2nd placing behind Home Team Sports, beating ExxonMobil again and AustCham paddle club.
Although the four teams were unable to advance to the minor finals or finals, the break-through of National Open and Senior National Opens into the semi-finals on this national level race events showed a relatively well performance despite countless training disruption due to haze condition. The race wouldn’t go on well and complete without the helps of our supporters and volunteers on the race site too. Special thanks to them to who spent their precious time and weekend with us.
U Dragons 