The Philippine Dragon Boat Federation (PDBF) is off to compete in the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) World Championship in Pattaya, Thailand this week. I hope that our athletes will draw inspiration from this article. It tells the poignant story of the sacrifices, the persistence and patience of their elders in the national team. Despite being dismembered by Peping’s Mafia in the old POC, they hunkered down to work and showed the Mafia a thing or two about true grit and professionalism.
We hope that the new POC will finally put a stop to the injustice and the disunity that Peping and his Mafia had cultivated in our different sports associations. Only by addressing these issues can Philippine sports move forward and break the jinx of dismal performances and failures prevalent during Peping’s dark era.
Annabelle Tario was one of the finest athlete/coaches the country has ever had in Dragon Boating. She was the national team drummer for so many years, and she provided the field leadership that catapulted the Philippine Dragon Boat Team to unprecedented heights in 2007-10, leading to 2 world records that astounded the international dragon boat community. Coach Annabs, as she is fondly called, set high physical standards, causing our paddlers – both from the men’s and the women’s side – to raise their performance levels even higher than everyone thought possible, leading to the stunning world record performances. That said, our confident Dragon Boat national team prepared for the Asian Games of 2010 for a chance to give more glory to the country.
Coach Annabs, one of the finest, most bemedalled athlete coaches in Philippine dragon boating. (Dragonboat.ph)
Unfortunately, fate would play a painful joke on the team. Asked to…
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