Philippine paddlers intensively train for gold in Asian Games

2010-06-10 - The Philippines' national women's dragon boat team has been intensively training for the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. Sunday is the only rest day for the men and women of the national team as they paddle Mondays to Saturdays for up to four hours a day, with the goal of cutting two more seconds from their record in Macau.

But the Asian Games are not the paddlers' next competition yet. The members of the national women's team are up against their best contenders in a series of tournaments in Zhaoqing, Guangzhou, and Macau .

The tournaments will serve as conditioning races for the 16th Asian Games. Through the qualifying competitions, the paddlers can gauge their strength and progress against other teams.

Last year, in the 9th World Dragonboat Championship in Prague, Team Philippines got the gold in the 200 metre Premier Mixed and 200 metre Premier Open events and silver in the 500 Premier Open.

This team is the country's pride and deserves all the support they can get from the government and private institutions. The Philippine Sports Commission puts its hope on the team to paddle for the gold in the coming Asian Games.

Founded in 1997, the Philippine dragon boat national women's team is composed of athletes from all over the Philippines coming from diverse sporting backgrounds, including swimming, softball, athletics, taekwondo, volleyball, the first Filipina to climb Mount Everest . The team aims to become the best premiere women's team in the world. The members are committed to fully extend themselves, to be gracious on and off the boat and to respect their opponents both in victory and in defeat.

Right now, the ladies are making every training day count, focusing on how to better themselves. And with their dedication, determination, loyalty to the country and to the team, they might just be on their way to further success.