On September 23, 2018 SHOU International Student Dragon Boat Invitational Tournament was held on the west track-and-field ground of the aquatic training base of SHOU. It was the first time that an international dragon boat event was held by SHOU. Present at the opening ceremony of the event were President Cheng Yudong; Wu Jiannong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Committee of SHOU; and the principals of related units. The event received substantial support from the government of Nanhui New City.
Nearly 200 Chinese and foreign students of 11 teams came from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Universidade do Algarve, Tunku Abdul Rahman University, Zhejiang Ocean University, Fudan University, Tongji University, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Second Polytechnic University, Shanghai DianJi University, SHOU and so forth, all gathered here to experience the dragon boat culture, and exhibit and promote the Oriental culture to the world.
Wu Jiannong reviewed the sports achievements made by SHOU since its founding in his welcoming speech, and pointed out that, on the path of discipline and specialty development supported by ocean-featured sports, SHOU would continuously forge ahead with determination, deepen its reform, transform the “keep moving, keep challenging” fight spirit contained in sports into a strong power driving its development vision, promote the prospering of various causes of SHOU and bring SHOU onto the world stage and into the future.
Jiang Shimin from Zhejiang Ocean University and Cui Yayun from SHOU made their pledges as athlete representative and referee representative. The martial arts troupe of the Art Troupe of SHOU presented an excellent martial arts performance Fist of Fury. Cheng Yudong announced the opening of the event.
At about 10:00 in the morning, 200 m straightaway race formally kicked off. The dragon boat team of SHOU won the first place with a score of 0.48.2, followed by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Zhejiang Ocean University in the second and third places, respectively. In the 500 m straightaway race in the afternoon, the dragon boat team of SHOU still performed well, and won the first place with a score of 2.01.14, followed closely by Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Shanghai Second Polytechnic University in the second and third places, respectively. The awarding ceremony was held in the evening.
The specific competition items of this event included 12-person 200 m and 500 m straightaway races, and followed the Rules of Dragon Boat Race established by Chinese Longzhou Association. The races were conducted in the forms of preliminaries, quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and grand finals.