Indonesia was once the world champion of Dragon Boat. In 1997, Indonesia ranked the top in the International Dragon Boat Festival, followed by China, the country where the sport originated, at the 2nd place.

But similar to the fate of other sports during the monetary crisis that hit the country in 1998, Indonesia’s Dragon Boat sunk pretty deep in the murky waters of financial uncertainty. And up until now they have yet to reemerge to their, once shining, reputation.

Responding to several international invitations to join a Dragon Boat competition, the first time Indonesia was introduced to the competitive arena of Dragon Boat was back in 1985 when the national team participated in Merdeka Games in Brunnei Darussalam. Quite surprisingly, the team won the gold medal. The following championship they participated in was the Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival, also in 1985, and even more astonishingly, the team ranked 3rd in the overall race.

According to Budiman Setiawan, the Secretary General of Indonesian Rowing Federation or PODSI, Indonesia was almost unbeatable in every Dragon Boat race starting from 1989, which the major crowning of the national team’s achievement would be the World Champion title, once again, beating China, at the International Dragon Boat Festival in Hong Kong in 1997.

So, naturally Budiman has high hopes for the 1st Asian Beach Games which hopefully will revive the winning streak the Indonesian Dragon Boat team once had. “I think it’s good that we’ll be hosting the Asian Beach Games, because it gives a chance to sports not being competed in the Asian Games to be played. I really want to see Indonesia make its come back as the dragon boat champion.” If there were any worries in the implementation of the event is the costly infrastructure development in the venue competition in Bali. And for the boat itself they will have to buy a new set of boats, preferably imported from Poland or China at a more affordable price as the average cost of a dragon boat is around Rp. 30 million.

As for the athlete’s preparation, next December SEA Games and the rowing national championship or pre-qualification round for PON (the Indonesian National Games) in September in Jatiluhur, Purwokerto, Central Java, will be used to evaluate the performance of potential athletes. (sl).