Dragon boats spark the fire within

Indonesia's women's dragon boat team (in white) competes in the 1,000m race during the Asian Games on Thursday. Yang Shizhong / China Daily

Guangzhou - Nurses, fishermen, housewives and soldiers are all getting stuck into the Guangzhou Games' colorful dragon boat racing competition, which made its Asiad debut on Tuesday and has attracted teams from all walks of life.

Japan's male nurses perhaps win in terms of their novelty value, but it is the fighting spirit of a team of firemen from Macao that has captured the people's imagination.

"Firefighting demands teamwork, and dragon boat racing is just the same," said Chang Wa Ieng, captain of Macao's men's team. "We can only train after work, but we enjoy doing it together."

While many professional sportsmen and women are struggling to find their way into the medals or the limelight in Guangzhou, teams of amateurs in fantastic boats are unable to avoid the publicity.

For Macao, which has never competed at an Olympics, a medal in the water would be the icing on the cake, but most of the crew is just thrilled to have made it this far.

"Even lots of full-time athletes didn't get the chance to come here, but we made it. I really feel very lucky," said Chang, who has been involved in the sport for 10 years.

Japan's team of nurses said its passion for the sport, not its profession, is all that matters.

"We just love dragon boat racing very much and we work very hard. It has little to do with our jobs," said captain Takamasa Matsuno, 34, whose team has only been able to train on a real lake twice a month, on borrowed boats, for the past decade.

Matsuno said it wasn't great having to do with wooden tubs filled with water for most of their training sessions, but it was nice receiving the support of their patients.

"This is the first time that we have competed internationally, and we hope we can have more chances in the future. We want to continue," he said.

The competition has seen athletes of all ages test their mettle on Zengcheng Dragon Boat Lake. Thirteen-year-old Xia Shiyu of China is the youngest athlete at the Asiad, while the oldest person in the dragon boat contest is 50.

Xia, a drummer for the women's team, led the 22-person contingent to the championship in the 1,000m straight race on Sunday after Indonesia claimed its first Asiad gold medal in the sport with a victory in the men's 1,000m, also Indonesia's first title in Guangzhou.

"It was really a great surprise for us. I'm so happy," said Djamal Uddin Young Mardinal of the Indonesian team. "I hope dragon boat stays in the Asian Games and is included in the Olympic Games in the future."

The dragon boat competition is divided into six divisions, made up of men's and women's races in the 1,000m, 500m and 250m.

China Daily