Paddling for motherland

While Manila was besieged with endless protests left and right over the weekend, I was more than 730 miles north of Manila in Taipei as part of a crew of 21 dragonboat rowers carrying the Philippine flag who slugged it out with three other teams for the fifth place. I felt it was ironic that while there were a group of people somewhere fighting to bring the country prestige and honor, exactly the opposite happens at home. That makes me sigh.

Anyways, our team competed in the 2005 Taipei International Dragonboat Championships held at the Keelung Riverside Park in Taipei city. Although we were actually a local club team, one doesn’t normally carry the team’s name in international races. You’re likely to be referred to by your country of origin. It’s a daunting task to know you’re competing for your country. And you know you shouldn’t fail. We left Manila early morning of Thursday and just planed home yesterday past lunchtime.

I have longed dreamt of competing for the country in one area I know I do well since I was in gradeschool --- sports. I’m glad I have finally found the way through rowing. It has been where most of my time revolved around since the start of the year and has been the cause of my endless decline on friend’s invitations for after-work dinners or coffee or movies. More ominously, I have to admit (even if I’d be likely yet lovingly sneered at by some friends) that it has mainly been the reason why love has come aloof and cold. It slips through my hands as fast it comes, vanishes as quickly as it appears knocking.

But the sacrifices I’ve endured over the months have well been worth it. They were around 76 teams who participated in the race, of which close to a third belonged to the open competition category where we signed up. Of this, about ten teams came from around the world from USA to Canada to Australia to Japan, Singapore, and of course, Philippines.

We didn’t fail motherland. We were one of the only two foreign teams left in the semifinals comprised of eight teams. We lost by an unbelievable 0.04 seconds. We may not have brought home the gold and around 600 thousand pesos in cash prize that accompanied it, but one thing was certain: We made a mark there. We deserved every applause they offered everytime we walk by. They couldn't believe we beat USA in our first heat and all the foreign teams after that. The only one's we were up against were Taiwan teams comprised of physical education major university students and another from their airforce academy. But even then, the name Manila will surely be associated with deadly performance on the water.