The eight International Dragon Boat Federation-licensed race officials with the organizers of the first-ever Cebu City Dragon Boat Regatta happening May 4-5 at the Il Corso. CDN Digital photo | Mars G. Alison
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Some 750 paddlers composing 22 teams from all over the Philippines will get to experience racing in an international standard dragonboat race course in the first-ever Cebu City Dragonboat Regatta which will be happening this weekend, May 4-5, 2019, at the Il Corso Filinvest Lifemalls.
JP Maunes, the team manager of the Philippine Accessible Disability Services (PADS) Adaptive Dragon Boat Team, which is organizing the event, made this announcement during the press conference for the Dragon Boat Regatta
Friday, May 3, 2019 at the Fishes restaurant in Il Corso.
“One thing that we are really excited about this race is that through the support of Maxboat Marine Corporation, we were able to set-up an international dragonboat race course, which is a first in Cebu,” said Maunes.
Aside from that, Maunes also announced that they are flying in eight (8) International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) licensed race officials to officiate in this weekend’s race.
“One thing that we really wanted was to provide a really good experience in terms of the quality of race officiating and the only way to do that is to invite internationally licensed race officials through the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF),” said Maunes.
Some 22 teams from all over the Philippines will be competing in four premiere categories, the premiere open, premiere mix, premiere women’s and the paradragon division. There will also be a varsity division.
Teams from Cebu City are Chasin Dragons, Poseidon and Cebu Fireblades; Black Manta Warriors and Shangri-La Mac Dragons of Lapu-Lapu City and Naga Bugsay of the City of Naga.
Coming from Dumaguete City are Yellowfins, Umagu and Mizuchi DBT Racing Team while from Bohol are Bohol Paddlers Association Inc. and Dauis.
The rest are Manila’s One Piece Drakon Sangres, Army Dragons and Triton Dragon Boat Team; Bugsay Marajao of Surigao City; Bagsik Dragonboat Team of Tacloban, Leyte; Father Saturnino Urios DBT Team of Butuan City; CDO PWD of Cagayan de Oro City; Bugsay San Carlos of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental; SJ Banatti of San Jose Negros Oriental; and Kujaw Tiger Dragons of Cortes City, Surigao del Sur. /bmjo