CEBU, Philippines — The Philippine Accessible Disability Services (PADS) Adaptive Dragonboat Racing Team braces for a tough competition as it seeks a grand slam championship in the 2019 CCB (Asia) Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races on June 14 at the Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong.
PADS team manager John Paul Maunes said that the team endured a lot of obstacles especially in their preparation but he is still confident on their chances.
“We have a lot of challenges this season. We have to move to a new training location, supposedly nag set-up ta ug training area sa IL Corso, SRP but with the presence of the jellyfish, nagka-skin rashes ang atong mga paddlers so we transferred to Mandaue City na side sa new bridge,” said Maunes.
“We also appointed new coach Ailene Padrones. She was endorsed to us by the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) para ma-guide’an ug ma-train og maayo ang team in preparation sa big races like the Hong Kong race and the World Championships.”
The Cebuano paddlers are positive in accomplishing their mission in bagging their third-straight title in the International Paradragon Championships division.
The countries award-winning and premier cross-disability dragon boat team will be sending 55 paddlers in the Hong Kong race.
“We are aiming for a grand slam title in Hong Kong and we are considering it as our acid test for the upcoming World Championships this August,” added Maunes.
PADS is also set to be competing against the abled teams in the 200m and 400m premier men’s open standard boat, premier mixed standard boat and premier women’s standard boat categories.