*dimsumdolly* - the different morsels of the life of a foodie

Bittersweet

We were probably the most un-uniformed team at Bedok Reservoir--we didn’t have club singlets or jerseys like all the other teams had (shirts are still in the making!), but I think we were the team with the most heart and sportsmanship.

On Sat, a women’s team which had been disqualified from the 200m women’s heat we were also in came over to ask if we would let them stay in the competition by not protesting their crossing of the wrong lane at one set of buoys. It was a tough decision for us to make as that would have meant us having to go into the repecharge and compete again for a place in the semis when it seemed like it was on the plate already with that team’s disqualification. But in the end, we decided to let them stay as a display of sportsmanship and also because we wanted to do it based on our own strength. But turns out that we didn’t have to do the repecharge (for some reason I never found out) and we were through to the semis. We made it to the finals as well, but missed out on the bronze medal by a dragon’s whisker. Darn. The consolation was that the mixed team I was in won a bronze for the Mixed 200m race.

Sunday was a day of highs and lows. A gamut of emotions. This was the day for the 500m races. What we had trained for. Our women’s boat made it through the semis. During the semis, every single one of us paddled our hearts out and gave it our all. We synced as one. The boat flew. The final timing of 2:52min was our personal best and it was certainly good enough to have us emerge about a boat length ahead of all the other five boats. We were ecstatic and were eagerly anticipating the finals where we were hungry to bring back some metal ware.

But the opportunity for competing for some metal ware was cruelly yanked away from us as the Philippines team protested the fact that one of our teammates also happened to be part of the race’s organizing committee and that it’s not right for her to paddle. The judges bought the argument and that protest brought on a disqualification and tears of anger and sadness when news of that disqualification sank in for all of us. Sore losers I say. And a complete lack of understanding of what the word “sportsmanship” means. ‘Cos you see, our disqualification would have meant THEIR entry into the finals as they had come in fourth. It was almost painful to watch the women’s 500m final and the women’s 1000m Super Cup final as they were taking place. WE should have been there if not for those sore losers. And it’s not like they had lost by a photo finish. It was a more than convincing win by us and they couldn’t stomach it. Despicable, I say. Thankfully, they didn’t win in the end and got trounced and came in 4th. Yeah to that. That's what you get for an undeserved place in the finals.

To cheer us up, Crystal and Cheryl were so nice (even though they were just as upset) as to buy up all the cookies Subway had at their both, and had Michelle G (our women’s captain) to distribute it as medals. So we bounced back and had our little heartwarming awards ceremony with the guys in the team cheering us on. We deserved our cookie medals!

After the disqualification, some of the ladies (myself included) had one more race to go for--the Mixed boat 500m finals. We came in third, and picked up a second bronze.

I must admit that not long after I joined this team in April, I had considered quitting as I didn’t feel like I could row with another team again after my previous team back in junior college days. Not being the most sociable person in this world, I found it hard getting to know people and assimilating into the team. I didn’t feel part of them. But I gave the team and myself a chance by hanging on a bit more and giving myself more time to know people and for people to know me. It has paid off and I now find myself with new friends who enjoy being in the sun as much as I do. We train hard, and then we go and eat lots of yummy food after that. I love such people.

The diversity of people in the team makes the team interesting. We have people from different nationalities, races, backgrounds, occupations, ages etc. It's a great mix of people. I definitely think the weekend's events brought us closer as a team and it's wonderful to be paddling with such a great bunch of people!