Torrential showers, thunder, and lightning dominated race conditions at the Ninth Annual Taipei County Congressional Cup Dragon Boat Race Championships held yesterday at Bitan in Hsintien, Taipei.
Despite the unforgiving conditions almost seventy teams competed in seven divisions.
"We will not halt the competition because of adverse weather conditions, unless there is a danger to the participants" Fung Chien-tang (
"Only if the lightning starts to move in extremely close to the river will we stop the races."
Huang Hsiu-li (
Huang's team, which came first in the mixed team division last year, was confident of her team's chances of reclaiming the title again this year and currently holds the top spot.
"We've been training intensively, seven days a week for over a month now," she said.
The fiercest competition so far has been in the men's societal division, with 18 teams.
So far, the top teams include the San-fa Automobile Company Dragon Boat team,? the Taipei City International Rescue team, the Aboriginal Ami team, and the Hsintien City Dragon Boat team.
In the men's administrative division, the team to catch is the Hsintien City Administrative Office, which won the Presidential Cup last year in the 2000 Taipei International Dragon Boat Race Championships.
In the men's school division, the Fu Jen Catholic University "Flying Dragons" currently hold the top spot, while in the organizations division the Taipei County Fire Department is the top contender.
In the women's competition, the Hsintien Community Representative team and the Lo Ming-tsai Office team are the teams to catch.
Because of the large number of teams participating in this year's races, the competition's format has changed, with the incorporation of an elimination round. Teams that make it past the elimination round continue on into the regular race format.
The Taipei County dragon boat races continue today.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
Ollie Watkins’ second-half header on Thursday gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Lille OSC in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie. Just past the hour mark, Ezri Konsa sent a deep pass that Emi Buendia headed to Watkins in the home team’s box. The England forward noticed goalkeeper Berke Ozer was off his line before sending a looping header over him and into the net. Minutes later, Watkins wasted a chance to double the advantage when he failed to score in a one-on-one with the ’keeper. Nottingham Forest were stunned 1-0 by Danish club Midtjylland, with substitute Cho
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS