This year's Taipei International Dragon Boat Race Championship ended yesterday on a high note just before the heavens broke.
There were a number of tight finishes to the races on the Tachia Section of the Keelung River to please the crowds.
Heavy rains fell just minutes after the final race, but by this time the results were in and the Thai international team beat three local teams in the Grand Final.
In the women's races, the Nankang District Office made easy work of its two competitors to win the Grand Final.
The last race of the day was the men's Grand Final in which the fastest teams in each category competed.
The Thai team, which had won the international category against the South Africans, showed its prowess by sweeping away the Taipei Fire Department, the Ta-an District Office and nudging out Fu Jen Catholic University in a tight race that was the high point of the competition events.
In the men's international race, held in the early afternoon, the South Africans hotly pursued the Thais, but could not take the lead, coming in almost four seconds behind.
The Thais came in with a time of two minutes, 10: 60, putting them in the position of firm favorite for the Grand Final.
The fastest team in the other three men's categories had been Fu Jen Catholic University with 2:13:04, which beat out the Taipei Physical Education Institute in the open category.
While the Taipei Fire Department had noisy home-crowd support, it never really stood a chance against the Thais.
It had been the fastest in the government agency category -- which made up the bulk of entries in the competition -- but only managed a time of 2:18:76.
The Ta-an District Office, which won the district office category with a time of 2:21:36 after nearly being knocked out in the early rounds, put in a strong showing in the Grand Final, pulling ahead of the fire department to produce an exciting fight for third and fourth place.
In the women's competition, only three boats raced in the Grand Final, with just the one international team from Japan showing up. As a result the race was converted into a demonstration event.
The three local teams competing for the grand prize were the Nankang District Office, the Sanchung Dragon Boat Committee and the Bureau of Education.
While there was never any doubt of Sanchung's superiority, which finished well ahead with a time of 3:00:04, second and third were separated by just 4/100th of a second, with the women of the education bureau nudging ahead at the final moment.
The exhibition races provided considerable excitement, especially in the men's category, in which two groups with a venerable association with the river were taking part.
The loudest cheers where given to the old men of the Sanjiaotu Fishing Community, who have had a long association with the Keelung River, where the race was taking place.
With most of the paddlers in their middle to late 60s, they put in a respectable time, finishing in 2:42:17, slightly behind the Kuantu Team, whose rowers have been part of the event since it was first inaugurated and are also in their 50s and 60s. They came in with a time of 2:41:71.
In the overall placings, which are the combined times from races yesterday and the day before, the Kuantu and Sanjiaotu teams came in first and second place respectively.
Both left the Chiefs of the Taipei City Government team, which included Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as drummer, well behind, limping in with a time of 2:53:24.
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