Local teams dominate vs international paddlers in Surigao dragon boat race

By Erwin M. Mascariñas
Correspondent .

Surigao City — Dragon boat teams from Davao City, Leyte, and Surigao dominated the three race categories against 20 other teams from the Philippines, Malaysia, Canada and Hongkong during the 1st Surigao International Dragon Boat Summer Festival, over the weekend.

On Saturday morning, during the 200 meters standard open finals, Bugsay Marajao of Surigao City took the first place; followed by Sugbu Mighty Dragons on second place; third place went to RCP Sea Dragons from Manila and fourth place to Umagu-Black Manta.

In the afternoon, in the 200 meters small mixed minor finals, the Leytenos Paddlers took the first place followed by China’s Knight Dragons Guangzhou; third place went to Rising Dragons of Hongkong, China and BSU Tacloban got the fourth spot.

Kampilan from Davao City took the top spot during the 200 meters small mixed major finals; the second spot to Surigao City’s Bugsay Marajao; third went to FSUU Alumni and last to Speed Devilz from Manila.

“We are happy that even though we are one of the newer teams, we were able to meet the other teams head on and give our best to be on the top of our category. We hope to join to more races in the next few months to come,” said Archie Suma of Leytenos Paddlers.

Steven Lim of the Orient Dragons from Penang, Malaysia revealed that they had to take two flights from Penang to Kuala Lumpur then another flight from Cebu then to Surigao City just to participate in the event.

“It took a total of around 8 hours of travel including the transit time but our overnight stay in Cebu was not included. About 14 of us came here to join the event, but we have around 70 members back in Penang because this is a small boat competition which is about 12 person on the boat and then another two reserve,” said Lim.

Lim claimed that it was an exciting and fun event to have been a part of.

“We are glad to be here, the sea is not as calm as we thought but we like the water very much. Our team was just formed in December of 2017 and most of our members are from different teams in Penang. Right now we have about 15 teams from all over Penang,” he said.

Mayor Ernesto Matugas of Surigao City expressed his optimism brought by the success of the event.

“The city allocated over P2-million for the event, this is a huge event for us here in Surigao City since this is not just the first international dragon boat summer festival for Surigao City but for the rest of Mindanao. Hopefully, this would be the first of many to come, after the successful event, we plan to do this every year,” said Matugas.