Philippine Dragon Boat Federation president Marcia Cristobal said this yesterday after reviewing the online results of ongoing competitions at the Zengcheng Dragon Boat Lake.

“Nasubaybayan namin ang competitions. It’s disappointing and frustrating for us. We could have won gold or silver medals if we were given the opportunity. Pero wala tayong magagawa, we had to comply with the decision of the Philippine Olympic Committee,” said Cristobal.

The national men’s and women’s dragon boat were not allowed to see action in the Asiad despite coming up with good times during the time trials last October at the La Mesa Dam reservoir last October.

The executive board of the POC decided to pencil off the national paddlers from the national contingent after evaluating the findings of the monitoring committee, which oversaw the Oct. 11 test races that were held under the supervision of Col. Jeff Tamayo.

At that time, the board maintained that the time-trial results reflected that the national dragon-boat teams were not in the best of shape for the Asian Games, considering the quality of the competitions.

But as it turned out in the ongoing Asiad, China finished the 500-meter finals in 2:00.667, a time which was slower than the 1:58.36 practice time of the Filipina paddlers.

“It should be noted that the national teams were not at their peak yet during the time trials. The times could have been closer. Sayang ang opportunity,” added Cristobal.

On the other hand, Indonesia won the men’s 1,000-meter race in 3:32.06, a clocking which was close to the 3:48 submitted by the national men’s team.

Indonesia also took the 500-meters in 1:44.506, while the RP men’s team had 1:47.

The national women’s paddlers’ time- trial results were even closer. China took the gold in 4:03.706, while Indonesia snared the silver in 4:14.59. Cristobal said the silver could have belonged to the Philippines because of the RP paddlers’ time trial result of 4:07.

Peter Atencio, Manila Standard Today