On Saturday, with about 5000 other people, I participated in the Singapore Dragon Boat Festival 2007. You can read more about it in the SDBA site at www.sdba.org.sg where the final results will also be posted.
ExxonMobil Papillion, my team, was entered together with three other EM teams in the Inter-Corporate Open. The Tiger Lillies was entered in the Inter-Corporate Ladies. Even though we have a mixed team, since there is no mixed category, we entered the open just for the experience.
This is one of the largest Dragon Boat competitions of the season, with 115 20-person teams and 161 10-person teams entered. It is also the longest at 800 meters. Let me assure you, this is a really long race!
We were entered as ExxonMobil Team “A” and we had the ExxonMobil “Rookies” in our heat. The rookies are our Veteran Team – this is their first competion. We knew we had a tough heat, because HP always is dangerous, even their “B” team, and NewUrbanMale is improving every year.
We had a really good start, just behind HP and even with NUM. The rest of the teams were already behind. HP kept pulling away, but we stayed right with NUM. I am very proud of the team as we kept rowing our rythm and our race, not trying to chase HP, or do something drastic to move ahead of NUM. They did a first hard-10 (ten hard strokes which are designed to intimidate the opposition) and moved slightly further ahead. We did a hard-10 and move slightly ahead at about 600 m. For the finish, we were neck and neck, but it became clear that we had no more to give. HP finished in 4m38; NUM did 4m43.61 and we did 4m44.11, half a second behind, and half a second out of second place, which would have qualified us for the semi-finals. The “Rookies” finished in 4m59, richer for the experience, and hopefully better prepared for the real ‘veteran’ competitions coming later in the year.
I am very pleased with our performance. We did a good race and were beaten by better opposition. At least, we did not beat ourselves – we have done that before. We should do better in the next races where we will be competing against other mixed teams.
The “refinery” team was also third in their heat. Fortunately, ExxonMobil “Ace”, our number one men’s team finished first in their heat in a very good 4m30 and have qualified for the semi-finals.
The “Lillies” had a very tough heat and finished third, good enough to go direct to the final of the ladies competition.
EM only competes in the 10-person boats. Just for comparison, one of the top teams in the National 20-men boat did a 3m14 time for the same 800 meters. The longer boats are faster, but we still would have a long way to go before we could possibly come close to that!
Sunday …
The “Ace” team qualified for the finals, and finished 6th – a very good result. One surprise: there were NO banks represented in the finals. Usually they are the stronger teams, but this year, HP and NUM seem to dominate.
The “Lillies” were also 6th in their final, having improved their time by 8 seconds from the semi-finals. A very good result.
It was an excellent week-end. I also discovered a part of Singapore where I had not gone before: Bedok Reservoir.
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Ah, I remember that you were into Dragon Boat racing, but writing it up on a blog brings it back to life.
This activity definitely puts you in a past (and future?) in Asian communities. In Toronto, we have Dragon Boat Races that compete at Centre Island every summer. In Vancouver, Diana’s brother-in-law (not an Asian) competes in a Dragon Boat Race.
Still, there are a lot of places in the world that would ask “what is a Dragon Boat”? I wonder if you can ever live in those places (again).
Dear Pierre,
When will you demonstrate this on the river Schelde in Antwerp?
Cheers
Olivier
A few comments
From Patrick – our coach:
Hi All,
Hope all have recovered frm the adrenaline pumping sat race, practically squeezing everything we’ve got and giving our best to Pappillon.We rowed our hearts out and were just split second behind an all men’s team.As we are generally a mixed team we are already in a disadvantaged position to be in the open cat to challenge for a silverware(Unless organisers add a mixed corporate event). Despite all the odds stacked against us we rowed n excecuted the strategy perfectly focusing on our own boat throughout, but we should be aware that our charging could be better.
From Su Li – our captain
Dearest n Beloved Warrior aka Papillonians,
It was a great fight that we put up for this year Singapore Dragon Boat Festival race. It was a tough fight and thou we have missed 0.5s to make it to the Semi-final, but we have rowed as a team and keep the pace as a Team.
We kept our composure and finish strong, thou can be stronger, maybe if I wasn’t having Flu n our Iron lady aka Yen Nee is rowing. Hehe… BUT, despite not being the all-males teams, we have managed to compete strongly against NUM and also was 13s behind the winner in our heat who was also the 2nd placing winner of the Inter-corp Final , aka HP “B” team.
The achievement was not achieved overnight. We have all trained hard for stamina, where we were make to row for 20 – 25 min continuous row in every training. Believe many had appreciate the training that Coach had put us thru. Also despite that we have the “start” 8 – 15, taught or “drilled” into our brain 2 weeks prior to the race, we have execute the “Start” command perfectly. Also to comment on the great adaptability of our rowers, William n Dennis. They had quickly adapt to the role of the super Back-packed seats (aka last seat on the boat) and even thou their paddles were faulty!!, yet both of them had kept up with our pace and had rowed strong together with the rest of the team. So Dennis, no worries can,
hehee….
Also to applaud is our Pacer, Samuel n Jonathan, who had kept to their pace and giving each other the encouragement required during the race. For our super motivator, Freddy and Desmond, who had constantly reminded us to keep to our pace with the command “Seat by Seat”. It’s of great wonder, that they had the strength to shout the command throughout the whole race, thou Desmond went slightly high-pitched towards the end. Hehee… But had really helped to keep us together. We also will not forget the 2 mountain, Ben n Ah Piao (Pierre) who had given us the strong “hard 10” that we need to keep in pace with NUM. To Christy who despite being the small small lady but with big big strength that had helped to propel the boat. Especially to Patrick, our dearest n beloved coach, who had never given up on us, throughout the year, even when he was down with Dengue, we were always his top concern!
Special Thanks to Ellie for coming down to be our super drummer. ^.^
As a team, we have improved tremendously as compared to what we have done in 2006…. Guess what is the timing for SDBF 2006… Drum roll,,,, 5.22.84(2006) vs 4.44.11 (2007). It was a marked improvement from 2006 where the competition was held during the same period. Hence we are looking for more self-record to break and definitely aiming for medals in the upcoming races.