TROUBLE in paradise.
That looms in the horizon as two international dragonboat competitions will be staged right on the same weekend and at the same venue in Boracay Island.
The International Club Crew Challenge and the 6th Boracay International Dragonboat Festival will both be held April 26-28, to be officiated by different competing dragonboat organizations in the country.
But the ICCC, organized by the 2011 World Championship five-gold winner Philippine Dragon Boat Federation, carries more weight as it will be the qualifying event for the World Club Crew Championships slated later this year in Korea.
PDBF president Marcia Cristobal said International Dragon Boat Federation president Mike Haslam of the United Kingdom will be the chief official of the ICCC to manifest the IDBF’s full support of the PBDF as the sport’s governing body.
PDBF was stripped of the national sports association status and was ordered to run under the Philippine Canoe Kayak Federation by the Philippine Olympic Committee on the grounds that it was not an Olympic sport yet.
The IDBF has earlier announced that it had already obtained the last
requirement to become an Olympic sport which was a membership of at least 75 nations.
On the other hand, the PCKF was tapped as technical support of the 6th Boracay International Dragon Boat Festival which is organized by the Boracay Island Paddlers Association.
Bipa has issued a statement saying they were the first to organize their tournament and even accused PDBF of “sabotaging” their event by staging the ICCC because they tapped the PCKF instead to run the races.
However, sources said the Philippine Sports Commission granted P100,000 financial assistance to the Bipa event as long as they get the PCKF as technical support.
Cristobal denied the Bipa accusation, saying their event has been posted on their website at the start of the year. She added that holding two dragonboat events should not be an issue because the famed island getaway is big enough to accommodate the tournaments.