Skrine Dragons 2009

The Skrine Dragons kicked off this year’s dragon boat season by participating in the 30th Penang International Dragon Boat Festival on 23–24 May 2009. The first day of competition saw us locking horns with the Malaysian dragon boat teams in the Malaysian Mixed 20-crew finals. The team finished a good 5th position out of 6.

On our second day in Penang, the women paddlers battled hard to finish 1st in our heats of the International Women 12-crew race. The team qualified for the finals where we were the sole Malaysian representative in an international all-star line-up featuring teams from as far as the Philippines, Singapore, America and the United Arab Emirates. We were unable to clinch a medal in the finals but we were thrilled at having made it that far.

We continued with our good performances at our second competition, the 1st Putrajaya International Dragon Boat Festival held on 5–7 June 2009. On the first day of the competition, the team clinched a 3rd place medal position in the Malaysia Inter-Corporate Mixed 22-crew race. The next day, our men’s team also put in a good performance by coming in 5th out of 6 in the finals of the Malaysia Inter-Corporate Men 12-crew race.

This left us with our final two races on the third day of the competition, where the women were the first to take to the waters in the Malaysia Inter-Corporate Women 12-crew finals. The women were narrowly edged out into 5th position. With barely any time to catch their breath, the women paired up with the men to paddle out for the Malaysia Inter-Corporate Mixed 12-crew finals. Two Skrine boats battled hard in the 6-boat finals, and our boats were unlucky to miss out on a medal position, coming in 4th and 5th.

The team will have warm memories of the year’s dragon boat season, not so much on the results that we achieved, but on the camaraderie and team spirit built up through months of training and paddling together.