China (IDBF) World Cup

I was very privileged, honoured and deeply excited to be invited to be a part of the race jury for the IDBF World Cup in Miluo, China.

This is a very prestigious, invitation only, event with the invitation being extended to 12 countries who have shown their winning paddling abilities at various championships in the previous year. They could have been the Asian championships, the European championships, the Pan American championships, the IDBF World Nations and other events under observation.

Having been a part of the race jury at the New Zealand National championships this year I thought I was well prepared to undertake this role and at that those championships having to resolve an appeal on a protest I thought that my impartiality was well established.

Firstly, I want to acknowledge the incredible hospitality of the Hunan province, the Yeuyang government, and the Miluo government, in hosting not only the officials but all the athletes. This was an exceptional show of generosity from the Chinese people.

I cannot speak highly enough of every aspect of the organisation, there was not one moment to spare, we were fully organised from dawn to dusk, we knew where we had to be, when, where, and why.

Nothing was an issue, and anything that we asked for we were given, to the point that we had to be careful not to ask for things because we knew we would receive them.

They were a lot of elements to this event for me and representing IDBF as an associate vice president, a member of the IDBF Council, and as IBCPC president. We attended cultural events, political events, and of course racing, which was ultimately what we were there for.

Anyone who has a love of dragon boat paddling must visit the Miluo International Dragon Boat Race Centre. It is stunning, in a city with a population of only 650,000, this venue superseded anything I have previously seen. The setup was incredible and then to top that off they had an outside broadcast unit of such a high standard with 21 cameras operating on the site, not only were there still cameras, but there were also roving cameras, drones, robot cameras on boats, cameras running between wires on the course. Just unbelievable, the coverage is world-class. The rig that was on the site had previously been to Paris for the Olympics.

Along with the countries competing the local Chinese also had local racing which is a little bit different to what we have as they also have a second drummer sitting in the middle of the boat cheering the team on.

Each day there were thousands of people watching. This city has 190 dragon boat teams, for such a small population that is amazing. They manufacture 2000 dragon boats annually. To say this is a city that loves dragon boats and its 2000-year-old history, would be the biggest understatement in the world.

We were extremely fortunate to visit the Qu Yuan Temple and Cultural Centre which was built in honour of Qu Yuan who is credited as being the founder of dragon boat in its birthplace of Miluo.

I witnessed some fantastic racing in terms of the relays where the teams were split into women in one boat of ten and ten men in the other and they relayed from one end of the course to the other. The other awesome race was pursuits race where again the teams were split into a women’s boat and men’s boat with the women’s starting 15 seconds in front of the men. The men had to catch the women and stay with them so that they effectively crossing the finish line together. You could see that “riding the wash” was the way to go to stay with each other. It was so exciting to watch particularly as they both rounded the turns at the same time within inches of each other.

The results for the championship were that China placed first, Indonesia second, and Canada third, the racing between these three teams was of an incredibly high standard. The trophies were beautiful and will make wonderful memories for people to take home along with the medals of course.

The opening ceremony was a first-class production and the closing with the athletes enjoying a party. It would be fair to say that there was a good amount of champagne squirted around and over the athletes, but they just had the time of their life. You could see that they enjoyed this event immensely.

Again, I express my gratitude for being asked to be a part of this fantastic event and again I reiterate if you are in any way interested in dragon boat then you must make Miluo an almost “pilgrimage” destination.