High bar for Aquaholics

ANDREW GIOANNETTI

AQUAHOLICS have enjoyed the high of consistent dragon boat success for quite sometime and as a result have set a higher standard for themselves. The Cocorite-based Aquaholics Dragon Boat Club will be back in the water on June 16 for the Tobago Dragon Boat Festival where they hope to sweep all their categories.

Achieving this will not satisfy them, however, as team captain Stefan Muiznieks said yesterday they are aiming at retaining all the titles they won in 2017 and improving on their times as well. Last year, Aquaholics won four events and finished runner-up in the other.

The Tobago Dragon Boat Festival, the premier event on the TT Dragon Boat Federation’s (TTDBF) calendar, will run from June 16-17 and will feature top clubs and schools from across the country.

“Our goal is not to necessarily to sweep (the competition) but to do better than we did last year,” said the 25 year-old who joined the team two years after its formation in 2006.

Muiznieks was speaking from the club’s training site in Cocorite, before joining coach Jeffrey Ng Chow and his Aquaholics teammates in Chaguaramas for the Unison Clean Up & Paddle Paddle – a clean-up initiative held to commemorate World Environment Day.

Aquaholics will resume training today and close preparations next weekend ahead of the Tobago showdown a week later.

Ng Chow said he expects top performances from the club in the various divisions, but anticipates a tough challenge from their improving rivals.

“Even though this will be the eighth year in Tobago, we expect that this regatta will be just as competitive, as all teams are at a very high standard and the water conditions at this time of year are very rough, which makes it very challenging for us who train in calm waters,” Ng Chow said.

“However,” he added, “with this in mind, we have been consistently training in order to prepare for this race and we will be bringing the best version of ourselves.”

Ng Chow said Aquaholics have been also assisting Hillview College’s dragon boat team in their training for the past two years which has seen the El Dorado-based school improve significantly.

From inception, Aquaholics Dragon Boat Club dominated in every edition of the Tobago regatta.

Last June, they placed first in the 2000m (12 minutes, 43 seconds), the Premier Mixed 500m Small Boat (2:20.0), Premier Open 200m Small Boat A Final (1:00.08), and Premier Mixed 200m Small Boat A Final (58.9 seconds). The club also finished second in the Premier Open 500m Small Boat, in 2:20.7. Oceanus Dragon Boat Club won in 2:18.0.

In 2016, the team won four events and finished second in two. Aquaholics are confirmed this year for the Mixed 2000m, 500m and 200m events, the female 500m and 200m, and all open events.

The competing clubs and schools in this year’s regatta include: Blue Bloods, Hillview College Hyperion, Manta Ray, Oceanus Dragon Boat Club, Peeking Ducks, Hydro Warriors, Saints Dragons, SJC Breakers and St Francois Orcas.

Dragon Boat racing is one the of the youngest yet fastest growing sports in TT. It was formalized in TT in 2007 with the formation of the TTDBF. The first dragon boat festival was held one year before to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Chinese arrival in TT.