A Race in Paradise: Where Kraken Bonds with the Sea

On the last weekend of April, Team Kraken flew to Boracay Island in the Philippines together with several members of Rogue Malaya team from KL.  The 46-strong crew braced the many hour flights and transit and land trip and ferry ride to race 200 meters in five categories.  A rather daunting mission as there were 54 teams from 8 countries participating.  More than 2,000 people were paddling!

Team Kraken, whose training ground is a reservoir, have paddled in Sentosa to experience the sea feel.  Palawan Beach on Sentosa pales in comparison to White Beach of Boracay, though 😊

Now racing at the Island of Paradise needs a measure of laidbackness and a whole lot of adaptability.  Race schedule, type of race start and length of the dragons’ tails were modifiable.  Nevertheless, nothing could dampen the spirits of Team Kraken’s members whose age range is between 20s to 70s.  In whatever free time they had, they went diving, swimming, boat riding or round-island touring.  

The beautiful island with clear waters and breath-taking views of both sunrise and sunset provided everyone with so much sun, sand and fun.  As a last note Juraimi, our senior paddler, is grateful for the team’s good management.  Poh, our invited paddler, gives kudos to our good logistics.  Andy, our master paddler, is thankful to the exco for the tedious behind-the-scene work.  And Nadia, our invited paddler, hopes that we survive our sunburns 😊

Our friends at Rogue Malaya expressed their gratitude for Team Kraken accommodating them to race along with us, including training them, hosting them whenever they come for training in Singapore and taking care of them – many of whom are on their first international race.  Together we coined our new cheer for the team, Aouligei!

Big thanks to Team Kraken’s Coach, TM, Captain and exco for making all this possible. 

Our report card:

DB12 Open – repechage, best timing 57:08

DB12 Senior Mixed – repechage, best timing 1:07:01

DB22 Mixed – quarter finals, best timing 57:31

DB12 Women – heats, best timing 1:14:13

DB22 Open – heats, best timing 56:91