PADS KEEPS CROWN IN HONG KONG RACE
A team of differentlyabled Cebuano paddlers defends crown in Hong Kong, makes finals against “regulars”
Nothing stopped the Philippine Accessible Disability Services (Pads) Adaptive Dragonboat Racing Team from bagging back-toback titles in the International Paradragon Boat Championship in Hong Kong last Sunday.
The Cebu-based team composed of differently abled athletes made it back-to-back after winning the 400-meter standard boat category with a total of 14 points after two rounds of the International Paradragon Boat Championship.
Pads Adaptive Dragonboat Racing Team topped the first round with a time of 1 minute and 35.850 seconds and garnered seven points. The team continued its dominance and improved its time to 1:33.913 in the second round to cap off the tournament with a total of 14 points.
Eagle finished in second place with 10 points and was followed by NAAC Top Brilliance Dragon Boat Team with eight points. Donut Dragon and NAAC Hidden Talent Dragon Boat Team had five points each.
Team captain Arnold Balais told SunStar Cebu that the team’s success is a fruit of all their hard work in the past three months. He said that there’s more pressure this year but they were able to overcome it.
“There’s much expectation from the team this year. We are happy we were able to defend the title. The team has improved a lot this year. We lowered our time by about five seconds,” said Balais.
Pads executive officer John Paul Maunes said that this win boosted the morale of the persons with disabilities (PWD) athletes and will inspire the team to train more for the coming races.
Before the Paradragon Boat Championships, the team competed in the regular division last Friday and Saturday and made it to the finals in the 200-meter open small boat and 200m mixed small boat against the athletes from China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.
“Surprisingly, we made it to the finals in the regular race and because of that, we earned the respect of the different paddlers. They clapped every time our team was called. That was an amazing feeling for us,” said Balais. /
Surprisingly, we made it to the finals in the regular race and because of that, we earned the respect of the different paddlers.
ARNOLD BALAIS, Pads team captain