KUWAIT CITY, May 21: It was an all-Toyota show Friday when its teams ran away with the Men, Women and Mixed races during Raft Race 2010, the popular annual and ‘original’raft rowing competition now in its 22nd year. Perennial powerhouse Toyota Al-Sayer fielded two Men’s, two Ladies and two Mixed teams along with one Men’s and a Mixed team from ABB, a Men’s team from Al-Bustan and the Aqua Park Tigers (Men’s) team who competed in five races. In the first heat in the Men’s category, the ABB red dragons took the early lead after the flag off with the Lexus GX460 green buccaneers following closely behind and the Cheetos/Doritos black and white pirates bringing up the tail. The Lexus green buccaneers caught up with the red dragons, midway in the front leg and did a fast clip on the turn at the marker buoy and headed home with plenty to spare; the three teams finished in the order.

It was the same scenario in the second heat with the Toyota Avalon blue fins leading the ABB red dragons and the Aqua Park Tigers; the latter finishing out of contention after limping home way off pace.
The third race was the Women’s final between Toyota stable-mates Red Seqouia and Al-Sayer Pink ladies, with the former negotiating the course in 5 minutes 8 seconds against 7.06 by the latter.
In the Mixed category race, it was the Lexus green buccaneers again, coming in first in 4 minutes 59 seconds with Toyota Al-Sayer and Toyota Avalon finishing in that order.
In the Men’s final, the Lexus green buccaneers stayed on course, finishing in a fast time of 4 minutes and 02 seconds to 5.36 for second place Toyota Avalon with the ABB red dragons, who abandoned the race after getting tangled up with the blue fins, was still considered to have finished due to a technicality.
In the final race of the day, the Lexus green buccaneers, again, took top honors, coming in a leisurely 4.29 with the Avalon blue fins finishing in 4.59 and the ABB red dragons (5.36) in third; as usual the Aqua Park Tigers missed out on a podium finish after veering way off course once again.
Handing out the prizes to the winners was Aqua Park GM Mohammed Khourshed assisted by Abdulatif Al-Shammary, Park Marketing Manager.
Overall team captain Khalid Al-Enezi was ecstatic after all the different teams under the Toyota Al-Sayer stable topped all the races, ending up overall champions. “This is the successful culmination of everyone’s tireless effort in over three months of preparations,” he added.
Asked to explain his team’s terrific performance, Lexus green buccaneers team captain Sergei Khazhempo said “practice, practice and more practice,” adding that his team, in particular, have been practicing not less than two hours everyday for an entire month prior to the start of the race.
 Though this year’s field is drastically pared down after a good number of teams opted to participate in an earlier race held earlier this month at the Hilton Resorts Hotel using inflatable rafts, there was a sizable crowd besides the usual weekend habituÈs at the park.
“We will prepare everything early for next year’s races,” says Abdulatif Al-Shammary when asked about the low turnout of participants, and added that the race held at Hilton Hotel caused some confusion. “Their race is a totally different concept from ours. By using inflatable rafts, they have taken away creativity and ingenuity not to mention, the thrill and excitement of coming up with a winning and functional design,” he quipped.
He also reiterated an earlier statement about building six new rafts in preparation for next year’s races, which he said will be loaned out for use by teams who are unable to build their own rafts.
Raft Race 2010 was organized by Aqua Park and sponsored by Toyota/Al-Sayer, Lays, Sebamed, Pfizer Nutrition, Wataniya Telecom, Kuwait Continental Hotel, Coca Cola and Al-Anbaa.