Dragon Boat off to flying start

Tumon Bay was the site of the 1^st Guam Dragon Boat Heroes Race as five teams took to the calm waters from the Marriott Hotel to the Matapang Beach Park. The colorful array of Dragon Boats along with the festive beat of the drums attracted viewers along the beach which was funded by a grant from the Guam Visitors Bureau and organized by the Haggan Outrigger Canoe Club.

The event opened with a blessing by the Taotao Tano group followed by the review of rules conducted by Race Coordinator Ronald Ruiz. Thereafter, the teams from the Guam Police Department, Guam Fire Department, Guam National Guard, Guam Dragon Boat Federation and the Haggan Outrigger Canoe Club took to the waters to test their skills on the forty foot boats.

The preliminary races witnessed extremely close times as Team Haggan bettered the Dragon Boat Team by 5/100ths of a second establishing a time of 2:36.205 minutes to 2:36.791. Guam Fire Department was only 1.171 seconds behind finishing in third as Guam Police clocked in at 2:38.822 and the National Guard finishing the 500 meter race with 2:39.420.

Tides turned in the finals heat as the Guam Dragon Boat Team added fuel to their arsenal rowing to victory in the 500 meter race with a time of 2:30.456 minutes. Guam Fire Department bettered their prelim time to finish second with a time of 2:36.429 while Team Haggan dropped to third with 2:38.329.

The shorter course of 250 meters was all Team Haggan’s as they raced to the best times in both the preliminary and finals heat. Haggan qualified for the finals heat with a 1:18.826 time, a fraction of a second better than Guam Dragon Boat’s 1:18.921 while GPD, National Guard and GFD finished in sequence with times of 1:20.227, 1:20.454 and 1:24.523 respectively.

Haggan glided through the finals heat with a sprint time of 1:14.505 as Dragon Boat who took an early lead off the start line was unable to sustain the flurry from Team Haggan and fell behind finishing with 1:17.506, only 4/100^th of a second ahead of GPD’s 1:17.979.

In the final race of the day, the National Guard beat out the Haggan Flyers in the 250 meter Mixed event 1:18.404 to 1:22.098.

The Guam Dragon Boat Federation’s inaugural race was brought in part by Calvo’s Enterprises, Moylan’s Insurance Underwriters, Hawaiian Rock Products Inc. Docomo Pacific, Tan Holdings Corporation and Ambros Inc.

Last Modified on 12/02/2011 15:06

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