Penang Pesta Dec 2009!

[Trivium]

tauhuey, i'm sure that's what the team managers r for. Not to decide where to have dinner after the race...

All i'm trying to put across is that, that was potentially another tragic incident in the making.

It's exactly the "to make all the arrangements to head up to penang, and to withdraw totally from the race, is NOT an easy decision. try putting yourself in that situation some day. your rowers might still be raring to go, or wishes to compete." attitude that might be a potential recipe for disaster.

[tigerhong]

Guess this race was not what most of the people who went expected it to be. Seems like the SIM student's 5 stitches to his ear incident traveled fast as even the fitness shop assistant knew about it when my team went shopping on Monday.

Well, not every overseas race is poorly organized. The Hong Kong's "King of the World Dragon" race is one that is worth considering. It was so much better than this Penang one in terms of food, race lanes and rules.

wow. they even know the amt of stitches. thats paparazzi to its very precision.

[breman]

tauhuey, i'm sure that's what the team managers r for. Not to decide where to have dinner after the race...

All i'm trying to put across is that, that was potentially another tragic incident in the making.

It's exactly the "to make all the arrangements to head up to penang, and to withdraw totally from the race, is NOT an easy decision. try putting yourself in that situation some day. your rowers might still be raring to go, or wishes to compete." attitude that might be a potential recipe for disaster.

I totally agree with trivium. I simply do not understand the need to carry on racing under such conditions. Would the medals and prize money be more impt than the safety of your rowers. Totally Crap... Being team leaders and team managers, they should look at the bigger picture and consider the overall safety, not just about the rowers wanting to row and wanting to compete.
Really bad call from the team managers, coaches and captains. Just imagine you were the one that are going to face the parents if any of your rowers have any mishap.
Some people just never learn from 2007.

[jessy]

I believe there still lots of lots of improving for sdba. not saying they are not gd but seriously say to compare them with more international races ( not refering to this penang race ), i tink alot more for them to learn and us rower to learn too
is about acting upon what you say than telling people what you do. jus my point of view

[Placid]

There is a growing momentum of comments criticising the coaches/captains/team managers.

Many quote the 2007 event.

Let's not get emotional over the matter.

Firstly, let's establish that, for those we were NOT at the race, it will NOT be fair for you to comment if the managers' decisions were questionable, because you do NOT fully understand the circumstances surrounding the race incidents.

And IF you truly were there, then I would have hoped you have VOICED OUT your concerns to your manager accordingly, and not merely keep quiet about it then and now sound self-righteous in the forum, saying things like “medals and prize money are not more important than safety”.

Theoretical reasoning is very easy. But acting on it is a different story.

All the SIM incidents occurred on Day 2. On the first day, everything went relatively okay even though there were no lane markings; things were generally smooth in terms of safety. All that jazz about unfairness will be another story, since we are arguing about safety now.

Day 2 was the finals day. Obviously people were more hyped and eager. Then came the incidents of violence. You note that the issues were more of hooliganism (paddle whacking head, hook lacerating ear). Water conditions were otherwise benign, and seriously, whether you have lanes or not, collisions still happen.

All in all, it is a difficult to call to decide. We are now looking at things retrospectively. We now know that in the LAST event on the LAST day, a capsize occurred and one Malaysian guy fainted and got sent to hospital. This riles all of us, thinking that this race is really crap and unsafe. But, before that, who would have thought this would happen?

We all remember the 2007 event dearly. Yes, we all do. I do not think the coaches/captains/team managers forgot the 2007 event. I believe for Penang Pesta 09, they made their call without forgetting 2007, and we respect their call. If the decision is totally unsafe, the team members could have rallied together and insisted on not rowing. The team manager cannot force the team to row. It's a collective team effort. The team can sometimes help the manager make decisions. This is what a team sport like dragon boat is all about.

Peace.

[faz_55]

I believe there still lots of lots of improving for sdba. not saying they are not gd but seriously say to compare them with more international races ( not refering to this penang race ), i tink alot more for them to learn and us rower to learn too
is about acting upon what you say than telling people what you do. jus my point of view

True. There's a lot more to learn and the positive thing is that we are progressing as event organizer & governing body (sdba/sava) and paddlers (in terms of performance, sportsmanship, techniques, etc). More so for SDBA with its very limited resources & $ funding. 

From what I understands, SDBA never sanction any races held in the seas, in line with MCYS decision after the 2007 tragedy. So its a personal decision and responsibility of each team (managers). The previous Penang race I went was held at the Telok Bahang Dam (a reservoir). I cant comment much on the latest race.  We can refer to wassuprai's earlier post.

I hope the SIM chap is recovering well. Lets learn from the lesson and move on.  Cheers

[gpower]

I know of some SIM rowers who did not want to row after what had happened to their team mate. For those who were introduced to this sport recently will NEVER be able to taste the severity and agony of 2007, many those belonged to this category in SIM. Considering this, the team manager / captain of the team should override everything that allowed his team to continue rowing, let alone his own pressures of winning medals and glory in such a stained event. Trivium and Breman and I would believe taking the precautionary procedures is the paramount thing to do as danger hazards were obviously waiting to manifest themselves into accidents of scale. Accidents as logic would tell us are often unexpected and if you have a team of 50 odd rowers such as SIM had for Penang, it will be a foolish move to continue should things went awry. Could you bear the responsibility of explaining to the parents of those 50 rowers. This time round, he would already have to explain to the parents of this injured rower. How then could he be able to face the music of the 49 more rowers if more mishaps were to actually happen back then.