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[av_heading heading=’PH Dragon Boat team bags 3 gold medals in Asian tilt ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
By ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – The Philippine dragon boat team immediately made its presence felt after bagging three gold medals at the start of the 2016 Asian Dragon Boat Championships on Saturday at the Baywalk area in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.
The Philippine team finished first in the 20-seater men’s 500-meter, the 10-seater junior mixed 500m and small boat women’s 200m events. It also claimed silver medals in the small boat men and women 500m categories.
Inspired by the huge Filipino turnout, the host team crossed the finish line in one minute and 52.720 seconds, a full boat ahead of Chinese Taipei (1:57.602) in the standard category.
The Philippine dragon boat team followed it up in the small boat junior mixed race with a 2:10.387 clocking before the women’s squad ruled the 10-seater 200m title for the first time with its 54.453-second finish.
“Our paddlers won’t allow a close race like that to slip away,’’ said Philippine dragon boat team head coach Diomedes Manalo. “We’ve trained for almost a month on this course.’’
“It was the first that our women paddlers raced as a team in the 200m,’’ said women’s head coach Len Escollante, who led the organizing committee with Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation president Jonne Go and Puerto Princesa mayor Lucilo Bayron./PN
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