Sports | Diplomats to appear in Dragon Boat races

Co-organized by the Sports Bureau (ID) and by the Dragon Boat Association of Macau, the 2017 Macau International Dragon Boat Races will take place on May 27, 28, and 30 at Nam Van Lake Nautical Center. 

Applicants can now register for the competition, either at the association, which is located at Nam Van Lake Nautical Center, or online.

The ID president, Pun Weng Kun, said on Tuesday that a new event will be organized for this edition. According to Pun, the organizers will invite embassies in Macau and Hong Kong to organize representative teams in order to participate in the race.

These diplomatic teams will then compete among each other in small dragon boats. This new event has been added “to increase sports and cultural communications between Macau and the foreign communities in Macau and Hong Kong,” declared Pun. The embassy category will be organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau.

The distance featured in the competition are 200 and 500 meters. The student races from the universities, the Civil Servants Invitation races (12 teams), and the International Invitation races (36 teams in open category, 18 teams in women category) will continue to play, as previously, in independent categories.

From March 25 to May 25, the organizers will arrange a training timetable and necessary facilities and equipment at the venue for local teams (May 27 to 29 for non-local teams).

Prizes amounting to USD10,000, USD5,000, and USD3,000 will be awarded, to the first, second and third place respectively.

Peter Tang Tak Seng, secretary general of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF), said that the defending champion Nanhai Jiujiang has confirmed attendance this year’s competition.

National teams of Singapore, Philippine, Indonesia, and Thailand are all confirmed to compete in this edition’s race. Tang disclosed that teams from Australia are also interested in participating.

Regarding the student category, teams from Singapore and Thailand will also attend the event. Tang said that Singapore’s national team and Thailand’s women team will join for the first time.