Philippines Cobra dragon boat team reaches QF

WUJIN, CHANGZHOU – Bucking tough weather conditions, the Cobra-Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) Elite got their campaign in the second IDBF World Cup going yesterday, paddling their way to the quarterfinals of the 400-meter team relay event here.

As the rain poured non-stop and made the atmosphere at the Wujin Taihu Bay Competition Base more chilling, the Pinoy paddlers dug deep and willed themselves to put up a good performance in the opener of the tournament featuring 12 teams from the top 11 countries in the world.

The Filipinos topped Heat 6 against Chinese-Taipei, clocking 1:51.844 against the latter’s 1:52.639 to progress to the Repechage stage of the 400-m team relay race, where the women’s crew paddles the first 200 meters and then the men’s team completes the job coming home.

Cobra-PDBF Elite then fell short in Repechage 3 against Canada (1:48.021) but they eventually got a pass to the quarterfinals after submitting one of the two fastest times among the losers at 1:52.262. They joined the Canadians and the Repechage winners China 2 (1:47.594), China 1 (1:45.718), and Russia (1:51.514), as well as fastest loser Thailand (1:47.279) in the next stage.

“The weather somehow affected us but we’re confident we can handle it,” said men’s coach and team captain Ambrosio Gontinas Jr.

The Phl earlier competed in the curtain-raising event, the 1,000-meter team pursuit – a race where the men’s team and the women’s side, set off 20 seconds apart, paddled two laps each and their respective times combined – but missed out on the grand finals.

The Pinoy paddlers placed third in Heat 3 with 10:22.240 then improved their clocking to 10:04.829 in the quarterfinals to eventually place seventh overall in this event.

“We made some adjustments in personnel and switched positions after the first heat and this led to a better performance,” said Gontinas.

The Day 1 races provided a good warm-up for the Filipinos as they look forward to defending the titles in the standard boat mixed 100-meter and 500-meter events and also the 200-meter distance.

“The long distance is not really our forte so we’re expecting stronger performances in the shorter distances,” said PDBF president and delegation team manager Marcia Cristobal. “We also hope the weather improves.”

The elimination and Repechage races in the 200-m were being held at presstime with the succeeding semis and grand finals slated today. The heats in the 100-m and 500-m competitions as well as the medal rounds of the 400-m team relay and 1,000-m pursuit are likewise penciled today.