CGY Oro Dragons on the rise

By: Jomerl Gomez

Dragon Boating in Cagayan de Oro is proving to be a progressing tourism attraction in the city. Pioneered by the Liceo Dragonoids in 2014, the sport was finally opened to the public in June 2018. Originating from the southern parts of China, the sport features the use of a human-powered watercraft and is composed of a drummer, paddlers, and a steerer.

Taking part in this journey, the “CGY Oro Dragons” Dragon Boat Team, an amateur dragon boat team based in the city, promotes community involvement, team-building, peace, and the preservation of the majestic Cagayan River. However, the team has made it its primary goal and concern to encourage the youth to participate in the sport as a form of productive recreation and as a means for them to steer away from bad vices such as substance abuse and alcoholism. As such, the team is mostly composed of high school and college students, out-of-school-youth, working professionals, and some PWDs.

In one year, CGY Oro Dragons has established their name by representing the city in national and local Dragon Boat competitions and have won various awards for them, and recently by this city’s City Council headed by Vice Mayor Rainer Joaquin V. Uy under resolution No 13218-2019 commending and congratulating the team and coaches for their performance in the first Spring Festival Dragon Boat Race held last February 3 this city.

Last year, at the Davao International Dragon Boat Festival 2018 held at Davao City, the team garnered the following awards: Standard Minor (Mixed) – Champion, Small Boat (Women) – 2^nd runner-up, meanwhile placing third in Small Boat (Open).

And just last February 2-3, 2019 here in the city, they competed at the 1st U23 Spring Festival Dragon Boat Race hosted by Dragon Boat Kagay-an and amassed the following awards and recognitions: 100m Small Boat (Women) – Champion, 100m Small Boat (Mixed) – 1^st runner-up,

100m Small Boat (Open) – 2^nd runner-up, 200m Small Boat (Women) – 2^nd runner-up, and 3rd runner-up in 200m Standard (Mixed).

CGY Oro Dragons competed with school-based teams, other independent teams from the city, and teams from outside Cagayan de Oro and came out as the overall 2^nd runner-up —a truly remarkable feat manifested by a neophyte team of the sport.

Asked about how the team made such an accomplishment in such a short time, Chummy Arbon, the team coach, mentioned that they “had to make sure that their training every morning at 5AM is an intensive one… every weekend, we double our time and train both in the morning and in the afternoon.”

The team captain, Frances Naive, also added: “Teamwork and endurance is the key… bahala’g walay athlete substitute in all heats, basta kay ang mindset is we should be one with the boat and endure lang gyud.”

With the team composed mostly of financially-dependent students, Julian Nitcha tells us how the team is able to proceed with its undertakings: “Our challenge was how to gather a strong U24 team given nga some naay class at 7:30AM, and there are some nga dili maka-afford sa plete and bayad for training… so, we pooled our resources to help them.”

Nitcha also emphasized on the support that the team receives from Dragon Boat Kagay-An thru its president, John Ascuncion, saying “dako kaayo among pasalamat nga naa ilang facility to accommodate us in every training.”

In the hopes of once again bringing pride and glory to our beloved city, CGY ORO DRAGONS will be competing in the 6th Bugsay Mindanao Paddle for Peace: Panagsangka Sa Banawa II on March 16-17 at Cortes, Surigao del Sur.