On Thursday, the Philippine Dragon Boat Team won at the 10th World Dragon Boat Racing Championships in Tampa, Florida. The Filipino paddlers bagged the gold medal from the 1000-meter small boat event, clocking a world record of 4 minutes, 57.13 seconds, beating Australia and Hungary for the title.
Although they didn't get to join the 200-meter race because 15 members of their team didn't get to have plane tickets due to insufficient funds at the worst possible time that made the team vie in 1000-meter small boat race instead of the standard one. This happening forced the group to join the small boat race without practice, but this obstacle just made their triumph more impressive.
As of today, the Philippine team are holding 5 gold and 2 silver medals, not to include the other world titles that they grabbed on 2007 and 2009. As told by the officials of the International Dragon Boat Federation, they are the Brazil in the World Cup of football. But aside from this fact, they still had an almost zero attention from the government, sports officials and the general public. The media and the masses have been very occupied by the Philippine Azkals who didn't even receive a single award for our nation.
The citizens of this country have all the rights to take pride in the Philippine Dragon Boat Team's victory because they are the ones that we can truly say ours. The members of the team are composed of the Philippine Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard who are pure Filipinos not hybrids who got British accents. We should salute them because they earned the prize by raising the Philippine flag, unlike others <*cough*> Volcanoes <*cough*> who are depending their popularity for all the wrong reasons.
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