Royal X in Power-D Fitness

WORDS: MELVIN JAMES | IMAGES: AMY CHAN

The Hong Kong Sports Expo 2022 hosted the Hong Kong Championship 4x200M Paddle ERG competition by Power-D Fitness with the grand prize of Power-D CUP, and free monthly, yearly Power-D memberships. Don’t ask me why they are called this way, I did not pick the name, but it is catchy!

It was a first for me personally to join a Paddle ERG competition, we are used to training on these machines during our notorious Royal-X land training to test ourselves before races and usually this isn’t an exercise most of us are fans of but it is part of the process. The ERGs don’t lie (Shakira, anyone?)!!

When Gianni Aprea reached out I simply couldn’t refuse; perfect opportunity to get back in to shape after a long overdue holiday back home and a great opportunity to test ourselves as a crew. The mission was simple, win the 4x200m relay race get as much rewards as possible for the team, be the best we could possibly be on that day, and basically “BRING IT” tactical Royal-X style, what could possibly go wrong? It depends on who you ask. The first event was the men’s race, “THE infamous one”, 3 teams competing: Spanish Dragons, Power-D Fitness and us. We briefly warmed up on the machines, got familiar with their settings, identified which physical calibrations we preferred, and decided on who would be the first, second, third and anchor Leg.

We started off well, got solid momentum at the beginning leading by one boat on the TV screen, everything was going according to plan, it looked like an easy day, but as YOU the readers might know: “Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast”! After the second leg, we went from first to second, trailing 3 boats behind power d fitness on the screen which was alarming. All the more motivation and adrenaline for us to make it back. In the third leg we caught back a boat length, but we were still 2.5 boats behind, and had 200m left, it was then the difficult and daunting task of the Anchor leg to do whatever it takes to make up ground and get the win to beat the leader.

The Anchor leg got on, and he probably wasn’t his usual self that day, although he is known to be a fierce competitor, no one thought he would go that far... (Relax man seriously…), it was almost as if he was possessed by something “BEAST” like, paddling the ERG like he never did before, full power, “RAW”, each strokes more powerful than the other, listening to Gianni’s cues (Gianni was calm and focused as if he already knew). The anchor was actually catching up fast, the team started believing again and started screaming at him, COME ON, LET’s GO, GO GO GO, EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING! GO GO GO! The Anchor made up the ground, caught up right before the finish line and we won by 0.4 seconds! He then suddenly jumped out of the ERG, went straight to the Power-D fitness’s Anchor leg who was still on his ERG trying to figure what just happened and the Royal-X athlete started screaming at his face war cry like, probably scaring everyone in the room (Apparently), then he shook the competitor’s hand, went back to his fellow Royal-X and celebrated by screaming again, it was truly epic, and we got it on tape!

On that day we won the men’s 4x200 relay, the overall Power-D Cup, and came second on mixed, we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish for the club, we learned a lot of valuable lessons, and we truly came together as a team, enjoyed ourselves, witnessed something that wasn’t supposed to happen and it’s a day no one will ever forget especially with the Royal-X Anchor Leg, who is he seriously!?