May 20, 2018 was edged in to the history books of Sri Lankan sporting history in golden letters. The first dragon boat team to leave Sri Lankan shores to compete in an International Dragon Boat Competition won the third place whilst being the underdogs.
Dragon Boat, a traditional Chinese boating game that dates back 2000 years, has 20 paddlers, 10 in each side, paddles to the beat of a drum placed in the front of the boat. Every paddler must be in sync with the beat of the drum for the boat to move forward. Dragon Boat was recently launched in Sri Lanka by the National Association for Canoeing and Kayaking in Sri Lanka (NACKSL) with the backing of Esquel Group, a fully subsidiary in Sri Lanka Polytex Garments Limited. The Esquel Group is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and a team from Esquel Sri Lanka participated in the annual dragon boat competition organised by Esquel Group for the first time in Gaoming, Guangdong Province, China.
Nine teams from six countries of the Esquel Group fought for the championship of the 4th Esquel Dragon Boat Championship. Four teams including the team representing Esquel Sri Lanka, participated for this competition for the first time. All four teams were considered as underdogs. The team from Esquel Sri Lanka was selected from all four factories in Sri Lanka, located in, Ja ela, Yakkala, Koggala and Kegalle. The team went through a rigorous three months of training.
The NACKSL joined hands with Esquel Sri Lanka to launch Dragon Boat as a sport in Sri Lanka in tandem with the competition. They organised a dragon boat coaching camp with the Indian national dragon boat coach Sunil Kewat. Under the coaching of Kewat the team transformed to a winning unit. Good results were forecasted for the team.
Making those forecasts a reality the Esquel Sri Lanka team shattered through the competition record books and finished their first race with Mauritius and Xingiang in just 1 minute and 26 seconds. Instantly, making Sri Lanka a force to be reckon with.
“It was never a cake walk, making underdogs to a bronze model winner in the first ever competition, I always had faith in the team as I knew our strength was in our technique and synchronization. Even though the odds were stacked against us I knew that we can somehow make a difference,” Achintha, the captain of the team said.
Esquel Sri Lanka, fished their quota of four races with 14 points with two first places and two second places. Just behind Vietnam with 15 points and Gaoming with 16 points in a very close quarter battle with China and Vietnam teams head to head losing in 0.3 of a second and 0.2 of a second
Even though, the Sri Lanka team finished third, they managed to capture the hearts of all with synchronization, technique, heart and soul they put in to each race. For the team that joined the race in China, it was a once in life time opportunity as they made many new friends and experienced first-hand the excitement of an international competition.
Sri Lankans in action
“In the story of making this Dragon Boat members into a competitive Dragon Boat team, we cannot ignore the fact that none of them had raw a boat or most of them still have not swim in water show that building a team is all about supporting and trusting them with respect. This team building in less than three months is a great example to the entire sports loving people of this country to share with all other sports,” Prithiviraj Perera, the President of NACKSL stated.
With the triumph, the team is keenly looking forward to making a difference and winning the competition in the coming years.
Esquel, the non-traditional apparel and textile company in a traditional industry has approximately 50,000 employees worldwide. With its vertically integrated set up from cotton farming to retails sales, Esquel has it’s roots in many countries such as China, Hong Kong, England, USA, Vietnam, Malaysia, Mauritius and Sri Lanka.
Team members were of the view that it was a great opportunity for them. Most of them got the chance to fly in an air plane for the first time in their lives before making a huge impact on the waters in a sport they were rookies at.
“We thank our employer Polytex Garments for this opportunity. We got to make many new friends all around the world and we saw firsthand how big Esquel is in China. Yes, it was a hard training for three months, but it was all worth it at the end. We shed our sweat, blood and tears in the training. The company took care of all our needs during the training and the China tour as well. We are counting days to go back next year and be the champions,” the enthusiastic team members voiced out.
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