The Dragon boat race being held as part of National Sport Day at Katara yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula
Doha: In the grand celebration of the 2019 Qatar National Sport Day, the Qatar Dragon Boat Association (QDBA) in collaboration with its cultural partner, Katara Cultural Village, held dragon boat races and community paddle at Gate 13 of Beach 2.
This colorful and exciting event aimed at giving back to Katara for being the sports’ gracious home and training ground since the 2013, introducing the sport of dragon boat paddling to more communities and families, and showing support to Doha Wireless Warriors, a team of cancer survivors and supporters in their advocacy to raise awareness about the disease.
As many as 300 strong paddlers from 10 different teams participitated: Masterpiece Dragon Boat Team, Doha Wireless Warriors, Doha Dragons Qatar, Onslaught Racing Dragons Qatar, Gaod Dragon Boat Team, HBK Raides Dragon Boat Team, Siklab Dragon Boat Team, K1 Kasagwan Dragon Boat Qatar, Philippine Dragon Warriors Qatar, Angry Dragons Qatar.
The friendly competition kicked off at 8am to midday, from semis to finals where teams vied for 3rd, 2nd, 1st runners up spots, and over-all champion in Women’s, Mixed, and Open categories. The ultimate victors were: Masterpiece for the Women’s and Mixed Finals, and HBK Raides for Open Finals. The awarding was attended by the Katara Culture Village Foundation’s Assistant Manager, Ahmad Al Sayed.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the beach, a well-attended community paddle led by the bright pink-clad Doha Wireless Warriors managed to have around 100 participants load the boat, and get a first-hand experience on dragon boat paddling. This activity hopes to promote a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle by getting involved in sports.
“We want to promote this boat sport by organising boat race competition today on National Sports Day,” Maefriz Mosot Manliquez, a member of organizing committee who is also a Paddler of Philippine Dragon Warriors Qatar told The Peninsula.
She said that freshers with zero experience will be given chance to peddle boats with the help of trainers by the end of race competition in a bid to promote the boat sport.
“Qatar Dragon Boat Association (QDBA) has ten teams. Each team has over 40 members from different nationalities,” said Manliquez adding that there are some teams with only Filipino members. Eureka Quiaoit, a Paddler of Masterpiece Dragon Boat said that teams of QDBA participated in the international boat racing competitions and bagged many awards. “Now we are planning to participate in a boat racing competition in Korea,” said Quiaoit.
