Tampa, Florida. The World Championships for the International Dragon Boat Federation. The Philippine Team are once again World Champions. But to many, they don't have a clue what it was all about.
There is a sad indifference in how we treat our athletes. They don't have support, the cheers and crowds. The Philippine Dragon Boat team is no exception. They won gold in Florida. They astounded the people there, they astounded the world. I'm not sure if that's the same case here in the Philippines, but hopefully they'd be given a heroes welcome back here.
We haven't been paying much attention to our good athletes. Our support to them sucks. They have to resort to private sponsorships to be able to represent the country in a prestigious international event. (Kudos to Cobra Energy Drink and Philippine Airlines for helping out, you guys are great!) I bet on the event itself, the only thing inspiring them is that they can give it all because they're rowing on clean waters. No need to worry about getting the dirty waters of Manila Bay in their skin, eyes and mouth; no need to worry about dying from perpetual diarrhea in swallowing some water.
The truth still is the Philippine DragonBoat Team are pretty much unknown. They're not the Azkals. They don't have the Younghusband brothers or the other good looking players that can market underwear in a big billboard in Edsa. Of course, they're no Azkals. They can win and they aren't overrated.
