THE first Kagayhaan Gold Cup dragon boat competition held in Cagayan de Oro City last August 20 ended with an unexpected victory by Liceo de Cagayan University Dragonoids and Iligan City’s Team Bakunawa as part of the ongoing Higalaay Festival celebration.
The competition featured newcomers and veteran teams, racing down with grit and savvy at the Cagayan de Oro river as major sports attraction for the city’s fiesta revelry.
Host Liceo de Cagayan Dragonoids claimed three golds in five categories that they competed, followed by Team Bakunawa’s two.
Among the 13 teams from the different parts of Visayas and Mindanao that participated include the Liceo’s Junior Dragonoids, Father Saturnino Urios University (FSUU) Blue Dragons from Butuan City, Dragons Del Sur, Hiraya Minokawa Dabaw and Team Kampilan from Davao City.
Cebu fielded Team Habagat Paramount and Team Kugtong, while Dipolog City sent in Dipolog Paddlers and Barangay Decayas Paddlers to go along with Bohol Paddlers-BIT and Tacloban Saltwater Dragons from Tacloban City.
The competition started early in the morning of August 20 with the time race of 2000 meters mixed category won by Liceo Dragonoids ahead of second-placer Hiraya Minokawa Dabaw and third-running Butuan FSUU Blue Dragons. Team Bakunawa ruled in 2000 meters, followed by Liceo Dragonoids and the Dicayas Paddlers.
The 200 meters for women gave Liceo Dragonoids another gold with Liceo’s junior counterparts taking the silver and Hiraya Minokawa Dabaw the bronze.
The Liceo Dragonoids sizzled again in 200m mixed category, followed by the Dipolog Paddlers and FSUU Blue Dragons. Team Bakunawa lorded it over in 200 meters Open ahead of the Dipolog Paddlers (silver) and Hiraya Minokawa Dabaw (bronze).
“I am really grateful that the different teams from the Visayas and Mindanao had accepted our invitation and help promote the sport here. Our heartfelt gratitude as well to all our partners who helped us made the event possible. It was a huge challenge but we pulled it through the support and motivation of everyone who believed in the goals of the whole event -- to promote friendship, peace, and a better world,” said Owen Jaen, race director.
Jean pointed out that he is looking forward into making the event an annual activity.
“I hope that the people have enjoyed the exciting races and will continue to patronize the upcoming dragon boat races in the city. I believe that if given the chance to continue, this will become an annual grand fiesta event that locals and visitors will look forward to and help in the city's efforts to promote tourism, sports and environmental awareness,” he said.
Equally ecstatic was Paul Andro C. Subere, 2016 Local Organization president of the Junior Chamber International (JCI) Kagayhaan Gold.
“We are very happy about the outcome of the competition, we did not actually expect that much from the audience and spectators as we only expected dragon enthusiasts. But what we had was a bigger crowd and we saw several people even on the other side of the river with vehicles parked at the riverbank,” said Subere.
Subere is confident the event will continue next year.
“We are looking forward to doing it again hopefully next year but we have to see for the improvements after our overall evaluation. We are looking at better partnership with the city as well as bigger sponsors and partnerships in creating a better and bigger dragon boat event for next year. We’re also looking for ways to give bigger prizes for our participating teams as well as a safer viewing area for spectators on both sides of the river,” he said.