Double Golds

"All the hard work and suffering for the last few months has paid off, it's worth it just for this small happy moment". Captain's words after NTU won the Men's Open Gold and Mixed Gold at the MR500 Dragonboat championships at Seletar Resevoir.

By the way, this is a typical training plan for the boys:

Warmup (yeah right, I don't mean to be a dissident but this is a blatant lie)

Captain chooses any three:

179 Bus Route long run
4 sets of 15 pullup, 20 pushup, 20 crunches
Medicine ball twist
Canoe twist, 15minutes
Tabata: Burpis, Pushups, Star Jumps, 8 sets each, 10 seconds rest in between sets

Gym (The "Main" Portion, still no piece of cake after 6 months)
Bench press (my favourite)
Upright row (the bitch)
Shoulder press (I like it too)
Bend Over row (the stuborn but manageable one)
Bicep curl (my pet for those solid arms)
Clean and jerk (the absolute fucker)


How true, and how sweet for the team to finally end the gold medal draught. Superb.

I'll make this clear. I'm happy for the team and the seniors but it would have been immeasurably sweet had there been a win for the juniors as well. We were in the grand finals of the Men's open, competing against our seniors and were so close, so very close, with a split second separating the next three teams.

As they say, we are champions, only for that day. After that, the win is meaningless except to prove, that we're probably on the right training track. We still have to move on, the juniors have got to learn how to handle pressure, get tougher, beat the seniors hands-down in the grand finals of the next competition. The seniors need to get faster, better, hold off the juniors, defend their place in boat A. It's a vicious cycle that is part and parcel of a team that only sees gold as a win. Our competitors are getting stronger, they made winning tough for us. Their loss will see the birth of strategies to blunt the brute power of the team.

Myself, I need to help the team to win, firstly and most importantly for the juniors, then for the whole team. I will perfect my stroke and increase my strength and endurance.

The double golds with the presence of both senior and junior boats in the grand finals heralds a new beginning. This is it, we will move forward, our time has come.