Taken when i did it almost 1/half months back. Pardon the pit bush. :)
And so it ends, the dark horse run. Amidst a substantial amount of controversy. Its a rather incomprehensible feeling of disappointment losing out because of an organizing error. Capitala Dragons, has earned many plaudits for earning a spot in the finals. Despite only coming together 2 weeks prior to the competition and a combined total of 4 hours of training. Beating a respectable number of 29 teams to deservedly earn a place in the finals.
And to lose out to a false start. Maybe not really a false start, see a dragon boat race, by rules or rather sportsmanship should only start when every boat is in an orderly line at the start before any starter should have the green light to flag off.
To shorten this extra long story of reasoning and blame, in a 6 boat final, our boat was initially in starting position before it slowly began to deviate from its original position and turn sideways. To be precise, our boat was in a perpendicular position while every other was in parallel. Our coxswain, a steerer of the boat provided by the organizers, supposedly a professional dragon boater was probably the only one to blame. See, a coxswain is probably the most important person on the boat to control and steer a boat in the right direction. Its not easy, controlling a dragon boat with 20 people inside. Its even harder/stupider to control a dragon boat with 20 people inside while sitting down. Frankly, his actions suggested that he wasn't really sure of what he's doing.
Due to him sitting and not making himself visible, the starter assumed everyone was in position and flagged off. Leaving us stranded and confused, frantically protesting with only sideways to go. The same thing happened during the semi-finals in which another team was not ready when they started the race. But the officials pulled everyone back and restarted. I ts a sick-to-the-stomach feeling really. Making it thus far and without being given a fighting chance for some well-deserved, possible glory and its over.
Some of our team members were protesting to the officials furiously only to be brushed aside, citing "these things happen" and aptly blaming strong winds. By this, of course igniting more tension, fighting fire with fire. Its unfortunate really, judging by the scale of the competition and the professionalism involved, there should've been some action taken from the start. But what can i say? Getting to the finals was already more than we asked for.
Despite all that, I was asked to do a phone interview for the national press . Haha. For being the youngest in the team and possibly the whole competition(because teams were either corporate based or professional dragon boat racers). And also a team interview article on our run to the finals. So it might be published in the papers sometime soon.
As for now, i scoured the internet and only found this one article so far. Published a week before the festival.
With a small team photo which doesn't enable you to zoom. But if you count the heads from the left, i might be the 6th one. The small speck with sunnies.
Oh, it finally rained here this morning. It only does about twice a year here, and the papers reported it like it was something huge. 25 road accidents this morning due to rain. Imagine that. This place is awesome.
That also means that winter is here. The climate change is drastic, just over 2 days ago it was still quite warm and yesterday morning, it all shifted to a different temperature. Now all the sliding doors are left open and it feels like the room is air-conditioned. I even put 2 foldable chairs on my balcony already. For the winter. :)
Some pictures of us before our first heat. More when I get more.
Jinny
Jinny
2 comments:
BEAUTIFUL tattoo [= You're in Dubai! Yayy.
Hey thanks mel. :) I'm in Abu Dhabi by the way. Heh. One hour from Dubai.
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