RP rowers bag gold, silver in Taiwan Festival

Competing in their first international tournament this year, the members of the Philippine Dragon Boat men’s team quickly made their presence felt when they bagged a gold and silver in the 2010 Taiwan Dragon Boat Festival held over the weekend at Dajia Riverside Park in Taipei. The 25-man rowing team sent by the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF), edged Asian Games rival and host team Chinese Taipei in the 500-meter distance race to serve strong notice of its readiness in the quadrennial meet to be held in Guangzhou, China in November. Led by skipper Uzman Anteriola, the team negotiated the distance in a minute and 57.80 seconds to dominate the host national team, which submitted a time of 1:58.06 seconds. Another local entry settled for third place with 2:00.30 time. The team also saw action in the mixed event with lady rowers from other Philippine club teams namely Triton and PDRT. The combined group settled for a silver-medal finish. PBDF technical delegate and national coach Nestor Ilagan praised the efforts of the men's team which started training seriously only last month. “It was a good exposure since we went up against Chinese Taipei, which will also compete in the Asian Games," said Ilagan. "Our gold medal time was not that fast because we were using heavy boats. But I'm satisfied since they performed to our expectations." The team arrived early Monday morning, but left again to compete in Macau. The event is slated June 15 to 17 before the squad travels to Chao Quing in China for another tournament. The women's team will be competing with the men's rowers this time. Both squads are eyeing to dominate races set in the 500 meters and 1000 meters distances against top teams from South East Asia, Asia and Europe. The dragon boat team is one among the potential medal producers for the country in the Asian Games. The squad already accounted for the country’s gold medals in big international tournaments. The men's team is the back-to-back world champion in the 250-meter sprint distance and owns the world record in the distance with 40.03 second in last year's edition held in Prague, Czech Republic. - RCJ,GMANews.TV