THE Cebu Dragonboat Fiesta 2017 is expected to become the biggest dragonboat competition in the country when it unfolds on April 28 to 30 at the Cebu Yacht Club in Lapu-Lapu City.
“I’m sure that this will be the biggest race in Visayas and Mindanao. What we’re aiming is to make the race the biggest in the country,” said one of the organizers Nonnie Lopez during the launching and press conference in Ayala Center Cebu yesterday.
The biggest race in the Visayas-Mindanao area has attracted 18 teams, while the record for the most attended race in the country was in Palawan, which was attended by 33 crews.
“The good thing is we started early with our preparation. At first, we weren’t expecting this to be big, but when we started to send invitations, there were about 40 teams who responded and were interested to be part of the race,” added Lopez.
Lopez said that the event got a huge boost when it was endorsed by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) with Commissioner Ramon Fernandez giving his full support.
The latest update showed about 40 teams on the lineup, including four international crews coming from United States, Canada, Hongkong and Nigeria. The organizers are waiting for the hotel bookings of the teams from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Italy and Korea.
“We have local teams in Cebu, visitors from Manila, and other parts of Visayas and Mindanao. If all the teams will be there on race day, we can beat the 33 teams in Palawan,” said Lopez.
Also present in the press conference were Provincial Board Member Celestino “Tining” Martinez, the team captain of Philippine Acceptable Disability Services Inc. (Pads) Team Arnold Balais, and Cebu Province Sports Commission (CPSC) Commissioner Randy Su.
“It’s good to see that there are a lot of local teams now. When we started, there were only two teams; now there are 10 or 11 crews. We’re really looking for a good race this April and encourage the teams to give their best to represent Cebu and the country as well,” said Martinez.
The race is for the benefit of Pads dragonboat team that will be competing for the first time in the International Para Dragonboat Championships in Hongkong in June.