moments of Jose's life

Mini Dragon Boat Racing in Sai Kung (27/7)

Getting up early at 6:30am, I was more excited than sleepy because it was the long waited race day. This was my first time to participate in the Mini Dragon Boat Race in Sai Kung. Our captain had informed us in advance that our competitors would be the top-tier teams in HK. The intention was to prepare us psychologically for losing in the game. Yet, my excitement was comparable to the burning heat of the Sun (up to 34 degrees celcius).














It was merely 5-10 mins walk from the Bus terminal in Sai Kung to the race course nearby the pier. Along the shore, over 100 teams covered the area with tents. What a crowd!

The first race was at 9:12am. We got on the boat and rowed to the starting line. "Concentrate!", shouted our coach, who was also the drummer. We paddled up immediately waiting for the starting horn. Suddenly we heard "Booo". Within a second, we threw all our strength to paddle 5 powerful strokes, then 20 medium length full-power, followed by long-and-deep paddles for the remain part. As expected, our team went last but came very close. I comforted myself by counting it a "win" since our team had lower proportion of male paddlers.

A few minutes later, we got on the boat again for the 2nd race which was men's race. Owing to not enough male members, we had 3 females in our boat. Our steersmen said we should be honoured to race with "海虎仔" side by side since they are currently the top team in HK. Needless to said, we lost again, 3 boats' length behind "海虎仔". While all other teams were waiting us at the finishing line, on the shore, the MC commented us "這隊十分有體育精神"!














Out of nowhere, a team member suddenly pulled out a bunch of power gels which energized the team in the next 2 rounds of race. After a total of 4 rounds of races till noon, we took a lunch break. Most of us preferred a light meal as the final race was scheduled at 2:40pm.

Never had we imagined a bad storm came a few minutes before our final race. The strong wind blowed off a few tents, lightning hit the sea and temperature dropped significantly. With such bad weather, the organizer suspended all remaining races for safety reason and all teams went into the car park for shelter. Luckily, the sky cleared off after an hour, so we could continue our race - the lower line mixed team final. Knowing it was the last race of the day, we input 100% strength to every paddle...3 2 1 ... POWER ...3 2 1 ... POWER ...3 2 1 ... POWER ... we finished 1st or 2nd in the race. Since the first 2 teams went so close, it required final judgement by photograph. At last, yeah, we were the champion!!!

張貼者：Jo Fung @ 晚上11:00