鈥楧ark horse鈥� Manchester team win Confucius Institutes鈥� Dragon Boat Race
The Manchester Confucius Institute team have won the Northwest Confucius Institutes鈥� Dragon Boat Race hosted in Liverpool on 27 April.
This is the first time the Manchester CI team managed to bring home the first prize in the competition鈥檚 ten-year history.
30 students and staff from the University of Manchester joined the racing team and competed against four other Confucius Institutes in the Northwest: Liverpool, Lancaster, Lancashire and Edge Hill.
After four races, the Manchester CI team came first with a time of two minutes and four seconds.
None of our language teachers had done dragon boat race before but everyone had a go at the race. It was great teamwork, and we are so pleased to have won the race on this occasion.
Dragon boat racing has been a traditional Chinese paddled watercraft activity for over 2000 years and began as a modern international sport in Hong Kong in 1976. For competition events, dragon boats are generally rigged with decorative Chinese dragon heads and tails.
For races, there are 18-20 people in a standard boat, and 8-10 in a small boat, not including the steersperson and the drummer.