Tobago’s Oceanus ready to learn from the best

OCEANUS Dragon Boat Club, another Tobago team competing in the Pan American Club Crew Championship this weekend, not only has their eyes set on capturing the top spot in the premier category but also sees an opportunity for networking with the world’s top dragon boat team – Twenty-two Dragons.

Speaking with Newsday yesterday, Georgina Peterkin, team manager said the team is prepared to learn as much as they can from some of the best teams during the event. She said, “The world champion is here in Tobago, Twenty-two Dragons, and we are actually in a race with them which, we are very excited about. We are focused on learning as much as we can about the sport from these professionals because we are a young team from a small island and we have so much to learn. We are going to be looking the some of the top teams rating and gears to take away as much as we can to improve ourselves.”

She further stated that she believed sport tourism will benefit all of the island’s stakeholders and hopes this event will establish an avenue for other prominent water sports on the island.

The team has been training for this competition for over a year and told Newsday they will be putting their best foot forward. “When training, our goal has always been to beat our best time, this is why when we enter every regatta, we may not win the event but, we try to surpass the time we have made in the last regatta we are comfortable with that.”

The four-time Tobago Dragon Boat champions are hoping to capture top spots in the 1000m, 2000m, 500m and the 200m all mixed and opened categories.

“We are confidently going into the 200m and 500m since as of now we are the fastest 500m dragon boat team in TT, coming out of the October regatta last year. It’s our first time going into a 1,000m race and we think we have a chance to dominate that also since, we are the silver medallist in the 2000m race for TT.”

Peterkin explained the only challenge the team has faced was sponsorship, she said, “it was very costly for the team but with the help of the corporate community we now have a better chance to go into the competition comfortably.

Other than that, we saw some issues with people getting ill, time off from work for practise sessions but it was not a major challenge.

For today, I can say my team has worked very hard to be where we are now going into this competition.”

Since the team was established in 2012 participated in a number of dragon boat evening including Point Fortin Regatta, Tobago Dragon Boat Festival and the Chinese Bicentennial Annual Regatta. The team has 32 members with 20 athletes participating in the competition this weekend. The team consists of athletes, personal trainers, lifeguards and certified first aid personnel. According to Peterkin, this is why the team is able to perform well.

Teams from four countries including TT, Panama, US and Canada will be participating in the competition this weekend. This is the first time Tobago will be hosting the event.