KUCHING – For the second year in a row, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus won the Inter-IPT Kenyalang Boat Championship title at the recent Sarawak Regatta.
The university also took third spot in the institutions of higher education category when another “Swinburne Pythons” team crossed the finish line behind second place winner Centre of Technical Excellence (CENTEXS) at the Kuching Waterfront.
This year, there were more teams joining in the fray for the coveted championship trophy. Off the starting line, the Pythons had to fight off stiff competition from experienced teams.
The students from Swinburne Sarawak’s rowing club put their training into practice and managed to beat their closest rival CENTEXS by a fraction of a second.
They created another first in the competition when their women’s team finished third in the one kilometer Bidar Women 10 Paddlers category.
This year proved to be one of the brightest in the history of the rowing club, in terms of winning the most trophies.
“This year has been an amazing year for us. We’ve trained very hard and pushed each other to perform beyond our limits,” said team captain Caitlyn Ong.
The club also put up a good show a week before, when it competed in the Sarawak Closed Men category at the Sarawak Dragon Boat festival, an international event where teams from Japan, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan, Philippines and Hong Kong including homegrown and renowned paddle boat teams such as Landas and Pusaka, took part.
Although they did not win any prizes, two teams from Swinburne Sarawak managed to break into the semifinal.
“The impressive performance in the dragon boat festival acted as a catalyst which fueled the Pythons to retain the Inter-IPT championship,” said Ong.
The Sarawak Regatta is held annually and is one of the most anticipated events of the year. This year both the Sarawak Dragon Boat Festival and Sarawak Regatta saw more than 30 local and international teams battle it out in 18 categories.
The event was attended by top Sarawak government officials and an estimated 10,000 people converged along the banks of the Sarawak River to watch the races.