Golden treble for Cebu’s PADS at World Championships in US
CEBU, Philippines — Cebu’s Philippine Accessible Disability Services, Inc. (PADS) Dragon Boat Team pocketed two more gold medals in the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) 13th Club Crew World Championships at the Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida.
The spirited Cebuano paddlers led by PADS founder and team manager John Paul “JP” Ecarma Maunes topped the 200-meter race of both the PD 1 and PD 2 categories.
The 25-man squad composed mostly of persons with disabilities earlier emerged as champion in the PD2 class of the 2,000m race distance.
“History in the making! We got two more gold medals today,” Maunes posted on his Facebook page while sharing at the same time that their journey to the week-long tournament was never easy.
“There were a lot of distractions coming to the world championships that almost broke the team into pieces and as a team, we stood for each other, lifted everyone from their feet and carried every burden we can carry just to make the impossible happen. These adversities fueled us to give it all in the races,” Manues said.
“Today was a very emotional race. As we look back six years ago, all we had was our dreams. Now these dreams are slowly becoming a reality as we reap the fruits of our hard work, dedication and sacrifices and of course, an entire community to back us up,” Maunes added.
Maunes is hoping that they will be able to create a ripple of inspiration for others with their heart-warming story.
“You can never tell whose disabled when you’re dragon boat racing. Nobody can tell you that you can’t,” said Maunes, whose team will next see action in the senior A mixed and premier open small boat in the 200m distance. They will wind up their campaign in the 500m distance on Saturday (Sunday, Phl time).
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