Micronesia Cup Race Report

27th & 28th October, 2007.

5 Lantau paddlers headed to the island of Palau to compete against other OC teams from around the world and snorkel with the jelly fish. Race report from Andrew Hubble... 

The racing was set in the beautiful waters of Palau that were so clean that you were tempted to dive off into the ocean while paddling. Teams from Saipan, Guam, Palau, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Australia were represented with the Northern Queensland team taking the overall regatta honors.

The team LIOCC – Ross, John, Simon, Jyrki, Andrew and Palauan “ring in” Obi had a fantastic two days of competition. We managed a 6^th in the 500m final with only 3 seconds separating 1-6 in a very competitive race and a 5^th in the 18K race.

We had a very good 18K long distance race on Sunday morning that followed the amazing water and scenery of the main island of Palau. We were beaten for pace buy the Guam team (who we beat in last years the 18k) but gain some satisfaction by edging out John Pash’s team HKOCC for 5^th place who had flown in from Guam along with IPC for the long distance race as a warm up for the Heineken Cup in Guam this weekend.

Placing for the 18k - Saipan, Northern Queensland, IPC, Guam, Lantau, Hong Kong Outriggers, Guam, Singapore, Japan.

This is the second year that Lantau has competed in the Micronesia Cup and next year this will be held in Guam. This is a fantastic regatta and should be supported by the clubs in the Asian region. The teams are all competitive without being in the “Hawaiian league” which suits the Lantau’s clubs focus of enjoyment and competition. In saying that, I’m sure that if we had a Lantau women’s team at the event we would have made the top three in some women’s finals and some mixed finals. I think we should look to send a full Lantau team for next year regatta in Guam.

We have committed to attending the event next year and I would like to invite those interested in finding out more about the event and how it was run to let me know and I would be more than happy to relay the experience.