ONE veteran sportswriter once told me of a problem he had with an NSA of a fringe sport decades ago. You couldn’t get in touch with any official if you want to get data, updates, or even results. But when they win a tournament, no matter how small, they’d be faxing (told you it was decades ago) all the details non-stop since such victory validates their existence.
A few days ago, I read a rather interesting take from Charly Holganza about the Philippine Dragon Boat team in the Asian Games and the World Championships. Holganza knows his stuff since he is sort of the father of the sport in Cebu.
He had two curious points, why would you send a team that failed to win a single medal in the Asian Games, despite predicting six, to the World Championships? And if the team that fails to win in the Asian level wins at the world level what does that tell you of that “world championships?”
I know dragon boat in the Philippines has gone to some rough patches and I finally understand why, thanks to this so-called world championship.
I did some search online and discovered that the world championships the Philippines is joining is organized by the International Canoe Federation (ICF), of which I presume the country’s own PHL Canoe Kayak Federation is a member. The ICF is the umbrella organization for all canoe sports in the world.
On the other hand, there is the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDF), which calls itself the world governing body for dragon boat and also holds its own World Nations Championships. The ICF has the upperhand since it is a member of the IOC, while the IDF says its a member of the SportAccord, whatever that is.
Of course, before anything else, we should ask: is dragon boat a discipline of canoe sports or should stand on its own? I guess, if the international federations can’t find an answer to that, we can’t expect to have a simple solution to such conflict since both the IDF and the ICF have member associations from each country.
I don’t think it is an issue that will be resolved easily in the future in the international level. Canoe sports have been in the Olympic agenda for decades. I remember marveling at the elegance of its contests but I don’t think the sport has grown. Dragon boat racing, on the other hand, has experienced exponential growth in the past few years. Just take the case of the sport in the Philippines, from being unheard of a few years ago, it’s now a mainstream sport.
Now, here’s the rub. Which national team and from what federation should the country send in international competitions? Well, for events like the ICF world championships and the IDF world nations championships, let the respective member-federations form their own but for events like the SEA Games and Asian Games, I think we should send the best team, regardless of affiliation.
So, if we hold qualifiers for our individual sports then perhaps we can have a face-off for our dragon boat teams. That can have the added advantage of promoting the sport, or even camarderie between the two factions.