SINGAPORE - With just one day remaining of the DBS Marina Regatta 2017, Saturday (June 4) saw plenty of stiff competition in the 500m dragon boat races.
In the premier categories, Singapore Paddle Club took home two golds in the mixed and women 12-crew races while Ley Choon Holdings secured the top spot in the open 22-crew event.
Linsay Tan, captain of Singapore Paddle Club's women's team, said: "Winning feels amazing, awesome and I felt that we really rowed together.
"We have been training a lot and I think it really shows in this race today. This is the greatest dragon boat race in Singapore and we always look forward to it."
Lam Yi He, captain of Ley Choon men's team, said: "We're definitely very happy because it wasn't an easy win today.
"Half of the crew are new people that just joined us, and half are crew from last year. It's a relatively new team, so we trained quite hard for this race and we're glad it all came together."
In the corporate mixed race, early pace-setters Hong Kong Disneyland Team Mushu Gold suffered a heart-breaking defeat as DBS Asia Dragons won in 2min 36.742sec, just ahead of the Hong Kong outfit (2:36:768).
The Dragons also retained their title in the corporate women's category, winning by almost a full boat length.
Lim Si Hui, Dragons' women's vice-captain, said: "We feel great because we've been training extremely hard for the past year, and we've stepped up our game to defend our win. I'm very proud of our team and how much we've come together in the past year."
Team Mushu of Hong Kong Disneyland snatched the last win of the 500m races by taking the top spot at the corporate open event.
Captain Steven Robert Kimm said: "We've put a lot of time and a lot of effort into preparing for all the races, and this is kind of like the pinnacle of our season. We're in pretty good shape, so we come here expecting to do well, but never knowing how the other teams have trained and prepared. We love the DBS Marina Regatta, it's easily one of our favourite events. It's definitely the highlight of our race season."
The DBS Marina Regatta will wrap up with a full day of 200m races on Sunday.
