Members of the PADS para-dragon boat team pose for a group photo during the 16th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships awarding ceremony. | Contributed photo.
CEBU CITY, Philippines– In an unexpected turn of events, the gold medal that the Philippine Accessible Disability Services Inc. (PADS) Dragon Boat Team won in the 16th International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) World Dragon Boat Racing Championships was replaced with a silver medal.
PADS has been campaigning in the world championships in Pattaya, Thailand for two days, and on Wednesday, August 9, they beat Canada in the 2,000-meter small boat para-dragon mixed category for the gold medal.
However, after the race officials slapped PADS with a hefty time penalty, the Filipinos dropped to second place good for the silver medal.
In the initial results, PADS finished first with a time of 10 minutes and 55.494 seconds, while Canada finished second at 11:07, followed by PADS’ team two at third at 12:10.
READ: PADS paddlers grab silver, bronze at start of 16th IDBF tilt in Thailand
Unfortunately, upon review, race officials alleged that PADS 2 hit the floating buoys of the race course, PADS manager JP Maunes said.
“Our gold medal win for race No. 5 was snatched from us because of a 15-second time penalty imposed on our PD-1 small boat team A because our boat hit two floating buoys during the race,” said Maunes.
“Bawi ta tomorrow. We did file a protest right after the race to appeal with the race officials, but our protest was denied.”
Despite the setback, PADS has already harvested two silver medals and one bronze in their two-day campaign.
They also have more events to compete in the next coming days of the 16th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships.
Last Tuesday, they bagged a silver and a bronze medal in the 1,000-meter para-dragon boat 2 mixed category. /rcg
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