Kellett Island Cup 2021 W O RD S: J O N AT H A N CHUI | IM AGES: STA NL E Y L A M
Feature | Kellett Island Cup 2021 t’s my first year with the Royal X team and the Kellett Island Cup was my second dragon boat race (the first being the Middle Island Cup). Even though it was my second race I was still not sure what to expect. As I met up with my friends, they told me that having these two Cups as my first races will ‘spoil me’. I had no choice but to agree with them as we sat in the Bistro having a breakfast buffet whilst we watched the dragon boat races.
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| SEPTEMBER 2021 AHOY!
When it was our turn to race, I was feeling more and more nervous as we got closer and closer to lining up for our boats. I tried thinking back to all the trainings from the previous weeks to recall everything I have learned; making sure to pause, rotating, keeping my head still and looking forward, having my paddle stay longer in the water, etc. As I ran the checklist in my head, we were already lining up under the marquees and ushered along to our boat.
In our first heat, we unfortunately had to race against our own team. As our boat waited for the others to get to the start line the anticipation for the race to begin seemed to take an eternity. But once our race started, the heat was over before we knew it. Our boat came in 3rd, and I felt a bit disheartened. However, we had another chance to race in our second heat. As we thought it was our last race, we riled up whatever aggression we
