Philippine paddlers create ripples with 4 golds

PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines — Philippine paddlers struck a gold mine on the second day of the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships yesterday, carting away four golds, a silver and a bronze at the world-class course overlooking the Puerto Princesa Baywalk here.  

Racing on calm waters early in the morning, the hosts hit gold off the bat in a wire-to-wire finish in the standard boat mixed 200-meter finals in a time of 47.07 seconds. 

They won the race by two meters, holding off the late charge of the Canada (48.69) and the Individual Neutral Athlete squad composed of Russian athletes (49.03), which came in second and third, respectively, in the competition backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and Tingog party-list.

That triggered a deluge of triumphs, with the Philippine women’s masters squad securing the mint in the 40+ 200-meter event in  time of 49.41 seconds, edging Czechoslovakia (50.84) and Hungary (52.12).

The Philippine men’s masters team topped the standard board 200-meter event (49.01) while its women’s counterpart added the fourth gold (55.22) in the meet organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation and the Puerto Princesa City government led by Mayor Lucilo Bayron. 

The hosts also took the silver in the men’s 20-seater standard boat open event (47.59) and the bronze in the women’s 20-seater 200-meter event (55.22) in rounding out their prolific performance in the meet highlighting the centennial jubilee of the International Canoe Federation.