PUERTO PRINCESA City — The Philippines achieved another sporting milestone by recording its best-ever performance in the 2024 ICF Dragon Boat World Championships at the scenic Baywalk here Saturday.

Finding inspiration from a highly- appreciative home crowd watching the world-class event, the Filipino paddlers added five gold medals to their total haul to assure themselves of their best showing in the competition organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak and Dragon Boat Federation (PCKDF) and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and Tingog party-list.

A strong showing in the afternoon races on Friday, followed by another impressive start on the third day of competition, guaranteed the Filipinos their largest medal haul in four appearances in the world event.

With five golds, five silvers and one bronze, the Filipinos raised their total haul to nine golds, 11 silvers and six bronzes as of 12 noon Saturday.

“The achievement of our paddlers yesterday (Friday) was certainly overwhelming after what happened to us in the opening day when we did not win a single gold medal,” said PCKDF president Leonora Escollante.

“This historic accomplishment was a total team effort: from athletes, coaches the support staff, everyone responsible in making sure that our national paddlers would excel in this tournament,” added Escollante, a former national coach herself.

“I am now very optimistic we will add more golds to our collection before this tournament is over.”

National team coach Duch Co was also visibly pleased.

“Actually, hindi ko na kina-count dahil mas focused kami dun sa performance nila. Yung masters, alam ko nakarami na din. Honestly, para na din akong nanalo ng gold sa performance ng mga athletes,” said Co.

“I’m really happy with the time. I’m really happy with their movement on the boat and I’m really excited for the preparation of the games.”

“We are training here for almost six weeks and the weather is quite similar so it was okay although nahirapan lang kasi low tide din especially sa ating men’s medyo, nasa fifth lane tayo so medyo mababaw so it really mattered on our performance,” she added.

“I wasn’t asking for a gold. Ang sabi ko nga lang sa kanila, dikit (lang). But they made it happen, so I think anything is possible basta maganda ang preparation.”

The Nationals started the third day of competition with determination, securing a pair of silvers in the 40+ masters open and women’s 200m events.

The 40+ and 50+ Masters categories were a significant success for the Filipinos, who bagged six gold medals across various events: the standard boat 200-meter open, mixed and women’s events, the small boat women’s 200m, and the standard boat 500m open and women’s events.

The team also earned two more golds in the junior small boat mixed 200m and the standard boat mixed 200m events.

The Filipino paddlers also had an encouraging result in the 200-meter small boat mixed event Saturday, finishing a close fifth place in 52.12 seconds.

Indonesia topped the race in 50.59 seconds while Myanmar and Chinese-Taipei were in a dead heat for runner-up honors with identical times of 51.20 seconds.

Spain took fourth spot in 51.37 seconds.

“Talagang gitgitan, buti na lang at nakalaban kami ng sabayan at hindi bumigay gaano,” stressed national team skipper OJ Fuentes.

The showing was an improvement over their 10th-place finish in the mixed 2,000-meter small boat race last Friday, the first of three events that determine the top nine countries that will book tickets to the World Games in Chengdu, China in 2025.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Robert Andaya