The firm's dragon boat team took part in the 1st ever Putrajaya International Dragon Boat Festival staged at Precinct 6 of Putrajaya, at the Water Sports Complex. We were involved in the Malaysia Corporate races, spread across Friday to Sunday.
We headed down to the Putrajaya Water Sports Complex on Friday afternoon, right after lunch, and as we arrived, we saw the many tents set up at the Team Village. The grandstand was also filled with spectators already and the marshalling area was buzzing with paddlers.
There were going to be over 50 teams, the majority of them being local teams, and there were foreign teams from over 8 countries as well. It was exciting to see so many new local teams taking part as well. Good to spur on the sport of dragon boating in Kuala Lumpur. Our first race on Friday was the Corporate Mixed 22-crew event (no pictures of the race though) where the team performed very well. We came in 3rd place, and with our best time ever.
On Saturday evening, we arrived for the Corporate Men 12-crew event and it was a tough race and we placed 5th, but at least we beat one boat. The other boats in the finals were way ahead of us though.
The men in action
Right after the Men's race, but all of us with smiles
We then stayed back for the prize giving ceremony at the grandstand as well.
It was time to quickly head home to rest, as we had two of our final races the next morning on Sunday. We were back at our base tent to warm up and stretch for our final two races, where we would also be getting supporters heading down to cheer us on.
It was then time for the women to start to load up on the boat for the Corporate Women 12-crew finals.
Scenes at the docking platform
The women's boat about to set off
I was steering on all the boats, so was on the women's boat as well. We'd have to paddle about 500 metres out to get to the starting pontoon where the boats will be aligned with the drummer holding on to a starting buoy to align the front of the boats. The usual shouts of "Boats, are you ready?" followed by "Attention!" (all our paddles will be raised) and then "Go!" and the paddles are driven through the water.
A number of the boats taking part in the Women's race were first-time teams but they did brilliantly. Good technique and good fitness, these boats very quickly surged into the lead and never looked back.
Our boat is the one furthest away, and all the boats are battling
In the end, the Women's boat was in 5th place, very narrowly edged out by 1 second for a 4th placing. But the crew maintained the synchronisation and kept fighting to the end.
Team Corezone-BUFF had just edged us, so good job to them. A plug to their website as well as Corezone stocks a lot of interesting adventure-related gear as well as some kayaking products that can be used for dragon boating.
With barely any time to catch their breaths, the women would soon be back in action, pairing up with the men this time to take part in the Corporate Mixed 12-crew finals. Each boat would require a minimum of 4 women out of the 10 paddlers. We just had to wait for our turn to board the boats.
We divided our team into two boats, a Team A and a Team B and this was going to be a full 6-boat finals. I was steering on Team A and we were in Lane 1, the closest to the spectators. After the word "Go!" the crew started paddling with all their might, and I was already expecting the other boats to pull away very quickly. After about 100m and even 200m, as I glanced out of the corner of my eye, I could see that no boats were really way ahead of us. We were all still neck to neck. I just kept looking straight, making small adjustments to the boat and kept shouting to the crew to keep time as well as to call out our Power-5 sequence.
As we approached the spectators and the grand stand, I could hear the cheering from the crowd as they were so near. I kept urging the boat on.
I could see some of the other boats pulling away, but I also knew there were boats behind us. This was going to be a close fight for third position I thought, but in the last 100m, I could see some of the other boats pulling away but I kept shouting out to the crew to keep them charging on. Our boat ended up in 4th place, while Team B was in 5th but that was a great race. We knew that we had done the best that we could and it left us satisfied and hungry for more the next year.
While the race left all of us ecstatic, it also left some of us shattered from the exertion.
With the conclusion of this competition, that marks the end of this year's dragon boat season. This leaves me with dragon boat withdrawal symptoms. No more early Friday nights in, and having to wake up early on a Saturday morning to make the trek to Putrajaya. I am already planning out in my head the possible training regimes for next year's competitions. It is difficult to want to push the team to be very competitive and yet make it fun. With everyone working so hard, it is difficult to get people to commit to many practices as well as any additional physical training. Will have to strike a balance for next year.
Well I'll look back at the 2009 season with a lot of pride at seeing how far the team has progressed. Seeing the same paddlers return and then benefiting from the experience and stroke technique, and seeing the newcomers jump into the sport enthusiastically, all the camaraderie built up over the last few months, all of that is very heart warming. On to greater heights for next year's dragon boat season!
We headed down to the Putrajaya Water Sports Complex on Friday afternoon, right after lunch, and as we arrived, we saw the many tents set up at the Team Village. The grandstand was also filled with spectators already and the marshalling area was buzzing with paddlers.
There were going to be over 50 teams, the majority of them being local teams, and there were foreign teams from over 8 countries as well. It was exciting to see so many new local teams taking part as well. Good to spur on the sport of dragon boating in Kuala Lumpur. Our first race on Friday was the Corporate Mixed 22-crew event (no pictures of the race though) where the team performed very well. We came in 3rd place, and with our best time ever.
On Saturday evening, we arrived for the Corporate Men 12-crew event and it was a tough race and we placed 5th, but at least we beat one boat. The other boats in the finals were way ahead of us though.
The men in action
Right after the Men's race, but all of us with smiles
We then stayed back for the prize giving ceremony at the grandstand as well.
It was time to quickly head home to rest, as we had two of our final races the next morning on Sunday. We were back at our base tent to warm up and stretch for our final two races, where we would also be getting supporters heading down to cheer us on.
It was then time for the women to start to load up on the boat for the Corporate Women 12-crew finals.
Scenes at the docking platform
The women's boat about to set off
I was steering on all the boats, so was on the women's boat as well. We'd have to paddle about 500 metres out to get to the starting pontoon where the boats will be aligned with the drummer holding on to a starting buoy to align the front of the boats. The usual shouts of "Boats, are you ready?" followed by "Attention!" (all our paddles will be raised) and then "Go!" and the paddles are driven through the water.
A number of the boats taking part in the Women's race were first-time teams but they did brilliantly. Good technique and good fitness, these boats very quickly surged into the lead and never looked back.
Our boat is the one furthest away, and all the boats are battling
In the end, the Women's boat was in 5th place, very narrowly edged out by 1 second for a 4th placing. But the crew maintained the synchronisation and kept fighting to the end.
Team Corezone-BUFF had just edged us, so good job to them. A plug to their website as well as Corezone stocks a lot of interesting adventure-related gear as well as some kayaking products that can be used for dragon boating.
With barely any time to catch their breaths, the women would soon be back in action, pairing up with the men this time to take part in the Corporate Mixed 12-crew finals. Each boat would require a minimum of 4 women out of the 10 paddlers. We just had to wait for our turn to board the boats.
We divided our team into two boats, a Team A and a Team B and this was going to be a full 6-boat finals. I was steering on Team A and we were in Lane 1, the closest to the spectators. After the word "Go!" the crew started paddling with all their might, and I was already expecting the other boats to pull away very quickly. After about 100m and even 200m, as I glanced out of the corner of my eye, I could see that no boats were really way ahead of us. We were all still neck to neck. I just kept looking straight, making small adjustments to the boat and kept shouting to the crew to keep time as well as to call out our Power-5 sequence.
As we approached the spectators and the grand stand, I could hear the cheering from the crowd as they were so near. I kept urging the boat on.
I could see some of the other boats pulling away, but I also knew there were boats behind us. This was going to be a close fight for third position I thought, but in the last 100m, I could see some of the other boats pulling away but I kept shouting out to the crew to keep them charging on. Our boat ended up in 4th place, while Team B was in 5th but that was a great race. We knew that we had done the best that we could and it left us satisfied and hungry for more the next year.
While the race left all of us ecstatic, it also left some of us shattered from the exertion.
With the conclusion of this competition, that marks the end of this year's dragon boat season. This leaves me with dragon boat withdrawal symptoms. No more early Friday nights in, and having to wake up early on a Saturday morning to make the trek to Putrajaya. I am already planning out in my head the possible training regimes for next year's competitions. It is difficult to want to push the team to be very competitive and yet make it fun. With everyone working so hard, it is difficult to get people to commit to many practices as well as any additional physical training. Will have to strike a balance for next year.
Well I'll look back at the 2009 season with a lot of pride at seeing how far the team has progressed. Seeing the same paddlers return and then benefiting from the experience and stroke technique, and seeing the newcomers jump into the sport enthusiastically, all the camaraderie built up over the last few months, all of that is very heart warming. On to greater heights for next year's dragon boat season!
6 comments:
Hey, good write up. You guys & gals did really well. Maybe we'll see you in future races.
-Recuperating dragon (Sharon Tan-COREZONE)
Hi Sharon!
Well done to your team! Hope you had fun at the competition, we sure did. Hope to see you at future races as well. Now all of us need to recuperate.
Great write up!
Karina (Team Splash)
Thanks for dropping by Karina! Well done to your team, well deserved medal! One of these days, I'm going to have to put faces to all these names.
It was truly a good race and we were honoured to be in the same category with all the participating teams. This is a good write-up with sportsmanship. Keep up the good spirits. (splahser - kerk)
Looking forward to seeing your team in the future races.
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