KOTA KINABALU: Team spirit and teamwork make a Sabah Dragon Boat Race team from West Kalimantan fall in love with this sport.
“It’s the team spirit, teamwork, that is put into the sport, and the brotherhood that is built out of it, that makes us fall in love with this sport and take part in it year after year,” said Al-Amruzi, manager of the Kiber team from Sambas, West Kalimantan, who is participating in the 26th Sabah Dragon Boat Race (SDBR) 2011.
Participants of the race had started practising at the Marina Bay Sports Club, Sutera Harbour, here, yesterday, before the competition begins today at the Likas Bay, followed by the finals of all categories tomorrow.
Captain of Kiber, Zulfikar MZ, whose team was formed in 2008 and had taken part in various boat races, including winning one in 2009 at the Putrajaya Dragon Boat Race in Kuala Lumpur, said that not only it is their first time participating in the SDBR, it is also their first time in Sabah.
Although they have not gotten the opportunity for a walkabout around town yet as practice and briefing started soon after their arrival, they have good first impressions about Kota Kinabalu thus far, especially the attractive surrounding of Sutera Harbour.
For Conor McManus, an Irish who lives in Penang and joined the Penang Forward Sports Club, one of the teams participating in the SDBR 2011, Sabah is a wonderful place of friendly people.
His team of boaters, who were champion of the International Category of the SDBR 2006, share the same view.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jennifer Purry of the Equity Trust team which will be competing in the Mix Team Open (200m) category, said that the teamwork needed to produce the required synchronization to stabilize the boat and eventually enabling the team to win, gives her the adrenaline rush that makes her fall in love with the sport.
Although it is only her second time after her team’s recent participation in the Hong Kong Sunlife Study International Dragon Boat Championship last week, she is already looking forward to joining more dragon boat races and hoped to be able to win the SDBR 2011.
This year, there are a total of 78 teams taking part in the SDBR 2011, which is the 26th edition, organized by the Sabah Tourism Board, Sri Pelancongan Sabah Sdn Bhd, in collaboration with the Sabah Chinese Cultural Association.
All are invited as heat races take of today at the Likas Bay, followed by the finals tomorrow, which will be graced by Sabah Head of State Tun Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Juhar Haji Mahiruddin and consort, Toh Puan Datin Seri Panglima Hajah Norlidah Datuk R.M Jasni.