Fudan dragon boat racers roar to success

With the approach of this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, the 13th Shanghai Region and 1st Yangzi River Delta HEIs International Students Dragon Boat Race was held on June 10, providing a golden opportunity for international students to immerse themselves in traditional Chinese culture and make friends with contestants from all over the world.

“Fudan! Fudan! Fudan!”

Accompanied by a uniform slogan-chanting, at an incredible speed, a red-and-blue boat with its fore and stern in the shape of a dragon, crossed the finish line on Tonghai Lake, Fengxian Campus of East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST). On board were racers from Fudan International Students Dragon Boat Team.

As amateurs, they managed to finish the 200-meter course in only 56.47 seconds during the preliminary round, three seconds faster than the second-place team within its group.

This year’s Fudan Dragon Boat Team consists of 25 international students from 19 different nations, including Russia, Germany, Mongolia, Nepal, Canada, France, Somalia, Brazil, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Panama, Afghanistan, Korea, Malaysia, Zimbabwe, East Timor, Turkey and Singapore.

As a sport featured by fierce competition, dragon boat racing makes high demand on racers’ strength and stamina. Unluckily, after entering the final, Fudan Dragon Boat Team was drawn to race in the first group, which left Fudan racers with only a half-an-hour break. However, Fudan Dragon Boat Team still outperformed the other three teams within its first group during the final. According to the overall score, at last Fudan Dragon Boat Team ranked 4th among the 32 teams this year.

The team made good use of the short break before the final to review their performance and draw lessons from the preliminary round. “A lot of unexpected situations happened in the preliminary round, but thanks to timely communication, we were able to give it our all in the final and make our teamwork more efficient,” said team member Ruoyun Bao, a Singaporean student from School of International Relations and Public Affairs.

“Everyone was in high spirits in the final and had smooth, powerful strokes at a steady pace,” said Bikesh Adhikari, a Nepalese student from School of Computer Science.

As the drummer, the “heartbeat” of the dragon boat, Bikesh is in charge of setting the paddling pace of all racers on board. “Stability and balance are the keys in the beginning, while in the intermediate stage, a steady increase in speed will be required. When it comes to the home stretch, it’s all about encouraging everyone to sprint.”

“I think our team did a great job today,” said the leader Annika Julia Steffen, a German student from School of Economics. “It's always hard to perform perfectly during a competition because there are so many external influences. Many of the team members had no experience of this type of competition and yet we broke our training record twice, both in the preliminary round and in the final. In general, it is important to always work as a team, and I think this is something we really excelled at. ”

The key to success is practice. In mid-April, Fudan racers started their on-site training on Fengxian campus of ECUST every Sunday morning. In addition, they received regular training on weekdays after class.

“In the face of stiff competition, the students performed really well and I’m so proud of them,” said Yanjun Zhu, a staff member from Internationals Students Office.

“I see sportsmanship and an unyielding will in these students. They worked very hard and went all out to win,” said Weimin Shen, the team’s advisor.

“Dragon boat racing provides an opportunity for me to appreciate the artistry and craftsmanship involved in boat design and the vibrant cultural traditions associated with the event, ” said team member Puiraldo Solana Maria Bosco from East Timor, studying in Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University.

Team member Ozge Kotan from Turkey, a PhD student majoring in international politics, said, “Team sports are harder than thought. People with completely different characters need to come together and act in harmony. In our team, we first became friends and that friendship bore sweet fruit.”

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