On Saturday, 24 August, the Bochemie team took part in the eighth edition of the attractive dragon boat race on the Oder River in Bohumín.
Original boats with dragon heads and tails require non-traditional crew names. In addition to the Bochemie team, the crews included Fast Spigots, Grisù the Dragon, Safety Pins, The Drunks, Bona Dragons, Vrbice Firefighters, Bohumín Hospital, the Bohumín City Hall team and the Polish team Meander. The fifteen teams that took part in this year’s race battled not only against the Oder River current (on a 200 m upstream section), but also with the strong arms of their opponents.
Each boat’s crew comprised a maximum of 22 stylishly dressed racers, including one coxswain, one drummer and twenty paddlers, four of whom had to be women. The most important thing for the race is the cooperation of all paddlers, who are aided in synchronising their paddling by the drummer. Those who have tried it know that it is not easy. Furthermore, there was more water in the river this year, which made the race physically more demanding.
The race was won by the Meander team of boaters from Poland, who were perfectly synchronised. The Bochemie team achieved a wonderful fifth-place finish.
