On 30th July, the day unfolded for U Dragons at the Water Sports Center @Kallang with the Pesta Sukan Dragon Boat race organized by ActiveSG. It was the second competitive race for the team since the lifting of covid restrictions allowing full capacity in a DB22 boat.
It was destined to be a hard fight for us as the 200m DB22 Singapore National Mixed category was expected to be closely contested by 29 teams. At 9am, the first event and heat1 saw us flanked by strong contenders – American Dragons Singapore, Canadian Association of Singapore, Raffles and the Filipino Dragons (Singapore).
We had a fairly strong start and came in third. Then we spent the rest of the time keeping a close watch on the timings from the next 5 heats as progression was based on 6 Heat Winners & 5 Fastest Losers heading straight into Semi while the rest continue to battle it out in Repe. The question on our minds was: will we breeze into the Semi?
As the race progressed, there were many nail-biting moments as timings for many teams just got better and better. Not surprisingly, we went into the Repecharge.
We managed to squeeze into the Semi but the podium was out of our reach. There were stronger teams out there who have trained hard (or harder) and deserved the top 3 positions. It would have been a bonus if we had made it to the Finals but hey, the teamwork was superb and every crew member put in the best so let’s give each other a pat on the back.
Well Done, U Dragons! Congratulations to the winners!
The second challenge of the day was a new 2km Ring Race for the ladies. As the name implies, it is a loop race with a 400m straight course and a U-turn to the starting point (that’s one loop). The full course? 4 U-turns or 21/2 loops.
As this category called for an all-ladies DB22 crew, we made the bold decision to collaborate with another team, Kalasag. We had much fun & laughter training together a few times, complete with a toy drum to get our sync right.
All the hard work paid off. With a steady pace and a brilliant overtake, we clinched the bronze. The feeling of victory is absolutely thrilling!
The event came to an exciting close with the conclusion of the ring races (ladies, open, mixed categories) and the day ended on a high note for us (well, who wouldn’t, we won a medal).
It has been a fabulous experience. We came, we battled, we won some and we lost some. No regrets.
We’ll be back at the next race event STRONGER. Till then ….. hasta la vista.
U Dragons 