By Xinyi Li, EDITOR

The

Chinese team won on the 3rd Dragon Boat World Cup

was held at Hechuan District, Chongqing on October 19 to 21. There are 5 individual races in this competition and the team of China won 4 gold medals as well as 1 silver medal.

Twelve Teams Race for IDBF World Championships

This international competition is held every two years. The last two competitions were held in Fuzhou and Jiangsu Province. The right of entry is pretty hard to gain. It only allows the first 12 teams in the race of IDBF (International Dragon Boat Federation) World Championships to participate in. Twelve teams from Australia, Czech Republic, China, Canada, the United Kingdom, Russia, Thailand, etc. participated in the 3^rd Dragon Boat World Cup. They represent the top dragon boat teams to compete in the contest.

This international dragon boat competition kicks off every two years

According to competition rules, 30 people were allowed in a team at the most, and 4 racing tracks were provided to the competition. There were 5 races: mixed 100m straight race, mixed 200m straight race, mixed 500m straight race, team 400m relay, and team 1,000m sprint. The top 3 of mixed 100m, 200m, and 500m straight races were China, Thailand, and Canada. The champion of DB 12 team 400m relay was China, the champion of DB 12 team 1,000m sprint was Canada, and the second and third were China and Russia. Otherwise, China has held the championship of DB 22 mixed 200m straight race for 3 times of consecutively.

Twelve worldwide teams participated in the competition

When the competition concluded, there were victory ceremonies for the top 3 of each race. The prize was RMB 1.8 million (USD 259,687), which had assigned to 12 worldwide teams according to their rank.

Information about Dragon Boat Competition

Dragon boat competition is a Chinese traditional custom with more than 2,000 years’ history. During Chu (Zhou dynasty era state 1030 BC – 223 BC), Qu Yuan (a Chinese poet and minister) threw himself into the Miluo River to commit suicide. People paddled boats to retrieve his corpse from the water, but there was nothing. Thus, on the day Qu Yuan died every year, people hold this competition to remember him, as well as to drive fishes away from his body.

Dragon boat competition is a Chinese traditional custom with more than 2,000 years’ history

At first, it was only a commemorative event but not a sports competition. Dragon boat racing was regarded as a modern international sport began in Hong Kong in 1976. These boats can be made out of carbon fiber and other lightweight materials. It became a modern, international, and normalized.

Source: CQCB