A dragonboat of the Philippine Accessible Disability Services (PADS). CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines—There is a lot to look forward to in the first Tudela Dragon Boat Exhibition Race on Thursday, May 20, 2021, to be held at the Fr. Joseph Weirtz Bayview Park in Barangay Southern Poblacion, Tudela town, Camotes Island, Cebu.
This after the Philippine Accessible Disability Services, Inc. (PADS) said it will showcase its youth developmental dragon boat teams that it has been training for the past months.
“We are very proud to highlight our under-24 development program that is participated by Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) officials from seven barangays in Lapu-Lapu City and Mandaue City,” said Maunes PADS team manager JP Maunes.
The PADS-backed dragon boat event will field in six of their youth dragon boat teams. It is comprised of four teams from Mandaue City and two from Lapu-Lapu City.
“We are very thankful for the Mandaue City LGU through Mayor Jonas Cortes and the Mandaue Sports Office for fully-supporting our travel expeses and allowances to bring the teams both our youth and seniors to Tudela,” he added.
Maunes said that the entire PADS organization is very optimistic about the ongoing development of their youth teams.
According to Maunes, the youth development program in dragon boat serves as their training pool to select potential paddlers to join both PADS and the national team under the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF).
Maunes said PADS is preparing for international races slated later this year, including the IDBF World Nations Championships in Hong Kong.
“We are very happy to say that PADS has a big possibility to make it to these major dragon boat races. We’re very optimistic also that PDBF will endorse our youth team for the Philippine team if everything goes well in the coming months,” said Maunes.
Meanwhile, there will be eight categories in the Camotes event. These are the premier open small boat, the premier mixed small boat, premier women small boat, masters, open small boat, masters mixed small boat, youth mixed small boat, youth open small boat, and the inter-barangay open small boat (Tudela residents).
Meanwhile, the PADS youth dragon boat teams are currently conducting a dragon boat clinic for the locals of Tudela town as of this writing.
/bmjo
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PADS to hold Dragon Boat Exhibition Race in Tudela