PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines – The Philippine Team, outfitted by Unisol, claimed six medals, including four golds in the second day of action in the 2024 ICF Dragon Boat World Championships on Friday at the Puerto Princesa Baywalk here.
Racing over calm waters in the morning race, the hosts achieved their golden breakthrough via wire-to-wire triumph in the standard boat mixed 200-meter finals clocking 47.07 seconds. They won the race by two meters, holding off the late charge of Canada (48.69) and the Individual Neutral Athlete squad composed of Russian athletes (49.03), which came in second and third, respectively, in the competition backed by the Philippine Sports Commission and Tingog party-list.
The PH women's masters squad followed suit securing the mint in the 40+ 200-meter event in time of 49.41 seconds, edging Czechoslovakia (50.84) and Hungary (52.12), while the men's masters team topped the standard board 200-meter event (49.01) and its women's counterpart added the fourth gold (55.22) in the meet organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation and the Puerto Princes City government led by Mayor Lucilo Bayron.
The hosts also scrambled to take the silver medal in the men's 20-seater standard boat open event (47.59) and a bronze in the women's 20-seater 200-meter event (55.22) in rounding out their prolific performance in the meet highlighting the centennial jubilee of the International Canoe Federation.
"Ginawa lang namin yung ginawa namin sa training with some slight changes. Huminga kami ng malalim then tuloy-tuloy na. Kumbaga full throttle," said national team skipper OJ Fuentes of the country's first gold medal in the opening event of the day.
"Sa last 10 meters gitgitan na yan," added Fuentes. "Masaya kaming makakuha ng first gold pero hindi pa tapos yung misyon namin. Umpisa pa lang yan at hopefully sunod-sunod na."
He said that the team is on target to match if not surpass the five gold and two silver medals the last time the country saw action in the 2018 edition at Lanier Lake in Gainesville, Georgia.
The Filipinos were also poised for their fifth mint after advancing to the finals of the mixed 200-meter Saturday in topping their semifinal heat in 52.06 seconds in another event that will have a bearing in their bid to qualify for the World Games in Chengdu, China in 2025.
