PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan — The Philippines took the overall title for a rousing windup to the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships here on a calm and sunny Sunday morning at the course overlooking the Puerto Princesa Baywalk.

A day after the Filipinos paid respect to their departed loved ones and in front of a lively hometown crowd, the Filipino paddlers added two golds, five silvers and two bronze medals for an impressive overall tally 11 gold, 20 silver and 16 bronzes.

Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand took runner-up honors with eight golds while the AIN (Individual Neutral Athlete) squad was third with a haul of six golds, three silvers and three bronzes in the meet supported by the Philippine Sports Commission and Tingog partylist.

The hosts won a hotly-contested masters mixed 20-seater standard boat 500-meter race in two minutes and 6.34 seconds, nosing out Singapore (2:06.73) while Germany was not too far behind in third (2:07.98) in the competition organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragon Boat Federation.

The Filipinos were also runaway winners in the 40+ 20-seater women’s 2,000-meter standard boat event (10:42.31) over runner-up Canada (10:48.64) while had silvers in the 20-seater mixed standard boat 500-meter (1:58.13), 40+ 10-seater mixed 500-meter (2:19.45), 20-seater open (9:23.16) and 40+ 20-seater open 5,000-meter (9:34.47) races.

But the 20-seater mixed standard 500-meters was most thrilling by far among the contests as the hosts virtually led from start to finish until they were beaten in the last 10 meters by the hard-charging Ukrainians, who snatched the gold in a time of 1:57.51.

They also bagged the last bronze of the day in the 40+ 10-seater open 500-meter (2:15.93) event in the four-day tournament also supported by the Puerto Princesa City government led by Mayor Lucilo Bayron, the Philippine Sports Commission and Lacoste watches.

“We made practically made history every day so I am very proud of our national paddlers and how we organized this big event sanctioned by the International Canoe Federation,” stressed PCKDF president Leonora “Lenlen” Escollante.

“So I am very glad that our staging of this world championships yielded the main goal that our national team was aiming for by clinching the overall title right here on our shores at that,” Escollante said. “This honor is not only for the PCKF, our paddlers but also for the country.”