Dragon Boat teams compete in the Buglasan Festival in Dumaguete last October. A Cebu team, Kugtong EXR, joined the competition and finished at third place.
1st Cebu International Dragon Boat C’ship slated May 2016
The Dragon Boat Cebu Central Philippines (DCCP) and the Cebu Provincial Sports Commission (CPSC) will spearhead the holding of an international Dragon Boat competition in Cebu next year that will hopefully pave the way for the country’s hosting of the 2019 International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) World Championship.
The upcoming competition will be dubbed the 1st Cebu International Dragon Boat Club Crew Championship and it will be held in May 2016 in the waters off the South Road Properties.
Retired General Charlie “Chai” Holganza, founding officer of the DCCP, said Department of Tourism (DoT) Secretary Ramon Jimenez and President Benino Aquino III showed interest in hosting the IDBF World Championship, which is the event dominated by the renowned Philippine Dragonboat Team
Holganza said the Cebu competition next year may be the cornerstone for their bid to host the IDBF World Championships in 2019.
In a meeting together with the different heads of Dragon Boat teams in the city and the officials of the CPSC yesterday at the Everything Yummy restaurant at the Cebu I.T. Park, Holganza said that they want the competition to level with the Sinulog and the Cobra Ironman triathlon as tourist-attracting events. They plan to make it the third leg of the annual tourism package of Cebu.
Also present in the conference were CPSC commissioner and Team Paramount Habagat head Randy Su, Team Kugtong EXR’s team manager Adong Deo, Lexmark Security Dragons manager Marlon Mesina, and DCCP co-founding officer Pons Alvarez.
The CPSC is now coming up with a resolution to help promote the event.
Alvarez said that dragon boat is a sport that Filipinos can be good at.
“Unlike basketball, where we need height, in dragon boat all we need is unity to win,” Alvarez said.
He also said that it isn’t difficult to get hooked to the sport, especially now that there is a dragon boat available for Cebuanos at the Cebu Yacht Club in Lapu-Lapu City every Saturday and Sunday.
“In dragon boat, you don’t need expensive stuff,” he added.
Three dragon boat races were already organized in Cebu this year. One was last May in Bogo City, the second was last August at the Cebu Yacht Club and the third in Danao last September.
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