RP Dragons Hauls Their Biggest Win at Singapore River Regatta 2007

On the 3rd and 4th of November 2007, the Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA) held its 25th annual Singapore River Regatta (SRR) in the heart of our bustling city. This year’s SRR had 360 teams participating - a record in the 25 years of SRR. This is a true indication that the sport is rapidly growing in popularity in Singapore.

Republic Polytechnic (RP) sent two strong teams to compete at the Singapore River over the weekend. The first day of competition was filled with excitement. After 8 hours of grueling competition, our determined RP Dragons performed their best to emerge second placing for all the heats. They went home with one common goal – to clinch that prestigious top spot in the National Championships Open Category the following day.

On the second day, the rested and recharged RP Dragons were ready for the final hurdles of their competition. The young team competing in the Men’s Team “B” went into the finals with just over 5 months of training, and emerged as 1st runner up for the Plate Championships. They edged out other strong tertiary teams like Temasek Polytechnic (TP) and Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP). The promising Team “B” has proven to be an emerging force with much potential in the tertiary arena.

RP Dragons' mixed team, which consists of 10 men and 10 women, is our very bastion of confidence. Our mixed team pulled ahead of other teams by a glaring 7 seconds in the heats with the best timing recorded amongst all the mixed teams. In the semi-finals, our mixed team surprised the crowd once again. They reached the finishing line ahead of Ngee Ann Polytechnic "B" team by 5 seconds - this is the fastest timing for all the semi-final rounds at this competition - and secured a spot in the Grand Finals. The long awaited mixed Grand-Finals commenced and every spectator gave their undivided attention to this exciting race. Our dragons, with their tamed aggression, leapt ahead and took the early lead, holding onto their paddles tightly with maximum concentration in each stroke. The fast paced race went on and the crowd watched with exhilaration and anticipation. Finally, in the last 20 metres of the race all boats seized the opportunity by giving their all. In the last few seconds of the race, our Dragons pulled away from the pack and secured the title of Mixed National Champions!

 

For the woman’s IVP Grand-Finals, it was a neck-to-neck race with paddlers from National University of Singapore (NUS) but during the very last part of the race the NUS girls went ahead of our girls by a hundredth of a second. In the semi-finals, our girls faced teams like SAFRA and Singapore Civil Defence Force, but none of these teams threatened our girls as we clinched first place and secured a place in the Grand Finals of the Woman National Champions. The Grand Finals drew to a close and our girls put their disappointment from the IVP Finals aside as they faced tough competition against paddlers from powerhouse National Junior College senior team, NTU, NUS and NTUC team A, whose paddlers are represented by girls from Singapore’s national team. The highly anticipated Finals took off with the boisterous air-horn and our girls paddled with full concentration, the ultimate goal clear in their minds. The girls grasped the lead for the first 250m of the race as they propelled their boat forward with each stroke. The last 50m remained; every boat on the course paddled their worth and our girls were on par with the other 4 boats. At the last 5m, every team had high and equal hopes of winning as it still wasn’t clear who would take the race, but our girls put their hearts into the last vital strokes and stole the hopes from the other teams, earning themselves the title of ‘Woman National Champions’ in the dragon boat realm.

 

RP Men’s Team “A” was faced with a daunting challenge in their Finals. During the 300m Men’s Open Grand Finals, the RP Dragons took the lead in the first 100 metres. The traditional powerhouse NUS team caught up with our dragons at the 200 metre mark, and from there it was a neck-to-neck fight between NUS, NP and RP. The earlier events of the day prior to this final race finally took its toll on the team at the last 10 metres. NP seized their chance to charge forward and brushed past us by a whisker of a millisecond. A second placing in the Grand Finals for the RP Dragons is nonetheless a great outcome and they demonstrated a true fighting spirit till the end.

After collecting our medals, we were happy that we had ended the year with a good fight. It was definitely a sweet victory for our Year 3s as this marked the end of their dragon boat experience in RP. Our Dragons have proven that they are indeed a force to be reckoned with through their gutsy display of perfect synergy & determination.

Results are taken from http://www.sdba.org.sg/.

Words by students: Joel Ang (SEG) and Jared Jerome Chan (CIE) (VO)(LH)