Rowers try dragon boat new event

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Canoe-Kayak Federation (PCKF) plans to introduce the new dragonboat event of D5 or five-man crew to gauge if Pinoy paddlers can already contend when it debuts as an outright medal event in the 2013 Southeast Asian Games.

Host Myanmar has inserted the relatively unknown five-man crew event in traditional boat racing, staking three gold medals in the Dec. 11-22 SEAG. 

Although Phl is among those complaining why D5 – an event played only in Myanmar and Thailand – would immediately be staged as a regular event,  coach Len Escollante said they are also looking at the possibility of trying out the Pinoy paddlers in the smaller boat in the next months leading to the SEAG.

“It’s not too late to train and get familiar with it. We have possible strategies for the event, like tapping experienced dragonboat athletes to paddle and assigning a kayaker, who is used to paddling on both side, to steer,” Escollante said in Filipino yesterday.

To start things off, Escollante said they are requesting the Philippine Sports Commission to purchase one or two boats for a five-member crew from Thailand, worth about P180,000 each. Then they will propose to play the event in the POC-PNG National Games to see if it’s feasible to join D5 in the Myanmar meet.

 â€œIf we see that the time is competitive (compared to the Burmese and Thais), why not?” said Escollante. “Three golds din yun, sayang din (Those are three golds we can aspire for).”

Still, Escollante said they would prefer that five-man boat races should be “held as a demo in the SEAG first”.

Overall, the PCKF eyes a full contingent of about 50 to the Games, fielding bets in the standard 10-seater and 20-seaters events.

“It’s not like your regular team sport, where you’ll only win one gold. Likewise, the kayakers in dragonboat will also be the ones competing in kayak so in a way, we can still save cost,” said Escollante, whose wards are coming off a six-gold effort in the International Canoe Federation (ICF) Dragon Boat World Championship 2012 in Milan, Italy.