It was time for the annual Jurong Island Dragon Boat Race. An event dominated the last few years by the many ExxonMobil teams entered in the various categories, except last year where results were disappointing compared to previous years. We therefore needed to improve…
Last year, indeed, we had won ‘only’ two cups out of four (ladies and Veterans) and three sets of medals – not bad, but not as expected. The final photo was still one of success.
As you may recall, my mixed team, Papillon, had crossed the finish first in the final, but was later disqualified as we had finished in the wrong lane … An costly mistake.
A lot of practice, by all teams, had gone into doing a lot better this year. We had entered 8 teams overall, five in the Open competition, and one each in Mixed, Ladies and Veterans. SRC had seven teams entered and most of the other companies a lot fewer.
Three of the teams entered in the Open division qualified for the semi-finals and eventually for the final (there are only 6 lanes) and two other teams, Tiger Lillies (Ladies) and Roaring Forties (Veterans) went directly into the finals as there are less than 6 teams entered.
Papillon had to prove a lot following the disappointments of the previous three years – and we had to do it without our coach Patrick who had other commitments that day. The team did very well in the heat, finishing well ahead of all the other competitors as seen on the picture of the finish below.
Success was repeated in the semi-final, with Papillon again finishing ahead of the rest.
The final overall results were much better than last year.
Sea Blades won the Open division and Aces came in second.
Roaring Forties won the Veterans by a margin of only 0.03 seconds.
Tiger Lillies were unfortunately beaten into second place for the first time in five years – a well deserved silver medal nonetheless.
And Papillon won the mixed division, beating SRC convincingly, and in the correct lane.
The award ceremony was again dominated by winning EM teams – Papillon getting their Gold medal from the EM Chemical Plant Manager himself – the picture says it all, joy and not a small amount of relief.
With so many EM teams getting medals and doing well, we decided to have, once again, a combined team picture on the podium.
That evening we had a fantastic BBQ at Ken’s place, with good food, good company, excellent home-made beer and even entertainment. Not a bad way to finish the day.
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Steering is important! Congratulations.