Two hundred people on Saturday took part in a annual long-distance relay race across the Taiwan Strait, three years after it was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 7km race between Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province and Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen County attracted swimmers from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Portugal and the UK.
Many of the participants said the stable weather was an added advantage.
Photo: Wu Cheng-ting, Taipei Times
In its 11th year, the competition started at Xiamen’s Yefengzhai Beach and finished in Kinmen’s Lieyu Township, with a midpoint at Kinmen’s Binlang Islet, where the first swimmer in a two-person team handed off to a second swimmer.
The starting point for the race alternates between Kinmen and Xiamen each year.
Zhaojun Bohang and Zhang Zihang of China won the men’s 14 to 30 age category in 85 minutes, 29 seconds, while Lee Kuang-hsin and Hsu Yi-chun of Taiwan won the men’s 31 to 35 age category in 106 minutes, 5 seconds.
Chen Zhangyi and Chen Ci of China won the women’s category in 91 minutes, 11 seconds.
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