(UPDATE) WITH still one more competition day left at the 2024 ICF Dragon Boat World Championships in Puerto Princesa Baywalk, Palawan, the Philippines has already eclipsed its five-gold haul from the last time it joined the tourney in Gainesville, Georgia, back in 2018.
The Filipino paddlers hiked their golden haul to nine in the current tournament edition after ruling the 40+ 10-seater mixed 200-meter category with a time of 1:52.17 on Saturday.
The Pinoy paddlers added a quartet of silvers early Saturday morning in the 40+ 10-seater open standard boat 200-meter event (52.72 seconds) and 40+ 10-seater women's standard boat race (58.66) and junior 10-seater open (2:16.23) and junior women 500-meter runs (2:47.97).
The Filipinos now have a total of 10 silvers and six bronzes in the meet, which ends on Sunday.
But as early as Friday, the Philippines topped its 2018 five-gold haul laced with one silver and two bronzes after claiming four golds that bumped its total to eight.
The Filipinos overcame the sudden afternoon downpour and strong winds for the quadruple wins capped by their conquest of the 40+ women's standard boat 500-meter event (2:16.32) and the 40+ open men's standard boat 500-meter race in (1:59.23) in the meet organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation (PCKF).
"The achievement of our paddlers yesterday (Friday) was certainly overwhelming after what happened to us on the opening day when we did not win a single gold medal," said PCKDF president Leonora Escollante, who was the national coach then of the previous record.
"This historic accomplishment was a total team effort: from athletes, coaches, the support staff, everyone responsible in making sure that our national paddlers would excel in this tournament," Escollante added.
"I am now very optimistic we will add more golds to our collection before this tournament is over," she added.
The Filipino bets also had an encouraging result in the 200-meter small boat mixed event Saturday, finishing close to fifth place in 52.12 seconds, where all six squads were virtually neck-and-neck until the last 10 meters.
"It was really a tight race, but it's good that we kept up with the opposition and didn't give in," said national team skipper OJ Fuentes.
The showing was an improvement over their 10th-place finish in the mixed 2,000-meter small boat race last Friday, the first of three events that determine the top nine countries that will book tickets to the World Games in Chengdu, China, in 2025.
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