Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
The dragon hunter who wants to fly high – the success of a Hungarian sportsman in Dubai
Change language:
Though Béla Kocsis started dragon boating only five years back, his team’s success has been very impressive and ambitious future goals have already been set, writes Dubai-based Khaled Abo Khamis.
With fiery eyes like those of the dragon that sits at the front of the boat, Béla Kocsis along with other 19 paddlers navigate the waters of Dubai Marina. On the right side of the second row he sits and shouts his instructions. You can see all the 20 paddlers on the boat – two on a row – plant their paddle in the water and lift it out in unison before they do the same stroke over and over.
When Béla, a six-foot tall blond man, started dragon boating five years ago, he was just practicing a hobby that he had always had a passion for. He never thought his love of this sport would grow and evolve to where it stands today.
As he was growing up in his early years, Béla loved anything that had to do with nature. He used to spend weeks out in the open every summer – camping and canoeing with his uncle back in his home country.
“Being in nature, on the canoe and in the river, was just amazing,” Béla said.
The 33-year-old Hungarian had his first contact with the game back in 2012 in Dubai, where he now works as a project manager for British Telecom. “The first time I did it I knew it was my thing and I knew it was a competitive sport, so I immediately took it up as a real sport,” he said.
Béla’s love for the sport was growing hugely. Though he believed he could do without it and it wasn’t a remedy for anything as he put it, he was unknowingly developing a deep fondness for this watersport. He was an extremely committed team member and he never missed a practice so that no sooner had he begun to wish for than his coach chose him to take part in the Club Crew World Championship in Hong Kong in 2012.
“Just two weeks before the race we were four guys competing to make those two spare spots. Then my coach told me, though it hadn’t seemed like that two months ago, that he would put my name down as a spare and I was over the moon.”
Luckily enough, Béla’s team came third in the mixed 500m race distance and he was up on the podium.
“I was really happy, and I had tears in my eyes. I was so inexperienced that I didn’t even know that spares get a medal as well.”
Upon coming back to Dubai, a life-changing surprise was waiting for him. Though, sadly, the team fell apart and most members never showed up again for training, Béla was appointed the new captain.
“Only four of us were on the dock out of all the team and the captain then said: ‘Anyway Béla is always at practice, so he should be the new captain.’ And I was like, ‘What is going on? I just joined!’”
Things went pretty well for a while and the team grew from four to 30 members. Two years later, the team qualified again for the CCWC in Ravenna, Italy, but didn’t make it to the next round of the qualifiers.
