Mountbatten CSC dragon boat team win 2008 Master Series

Contributed by Teo Songkang

Bedok Reservoir, Sunday, November 9, 2008 – The Mountbatten CSC dragon boating team emerged as the overall champion in the 2008 Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA) Master Series after winning the last race of the series. They also won the inaugural series last year. The team won 5 out of the 6 races after they were disqualified in the first race due to a technical error.

The Mountbatten CSC team consists of rowers of all walks of life and ages. Among the younger rowers, there are students as young as 15 years old from National Junior College. The oldest rower, Tan Cheng Hui, 55, was an ex-national rower in the late 70s and early 80s.

The Master series 2008 consists of six races that were held throughout the year. The race course is a straight sprint distance of five hundred metres at Bedok Reservoir. The series began in early April and the last race was on November 9th.

The Singapore Dragon Boat Association launched the SDBA Master Series for men in the year 2007 with 20 teams competing. This year, 28 teams competed. The first SDBA Master Series for women was launched this year as well.

Mr Tan Cheng Hui definitely felt happy to be in the team, enjoying the intensive and yet fun training with the young teammates. He certainly has high hopes for the team, expressing his wish that they can do better and achieve a better race timing in the Master Series 2009.

Student Kwek Zhung How saw his participation in the team as a great opportunity to collaborate with the best team in Singapore and learn from their experience. Not only that, he has taken with him some invaluable points on how to cope with pressure, how to react under different circumstances during racing and how to develop a “killer instinct”.

In 2009, the 3rd Master Series will start in early March and run to mid-November.

1st Series – March 22nd, 09 (Sun)
2nd Series – May 24th, 09 (Sun)
3rd Series – July 19th, 09 (Sun)
4th Series – September 27th, 09 (Sun)
5th Series – November 8th, 09 (Sun)
6th Series – December 13th, 09 (Sun)