Dragon Boat at the 2023 Asian Games: Full Recap

Dragon boat was featured at the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games. The event was held at the Wenzhou Dragon Boat Centre from October 4 to October 6, where the athletes competed for 6 gold medals in total.

Athletes raced a total of three distances per gender division: 200m, 500m and 1000m. The athletes competed in the 12-person small boats.

Ahead of the games, the team to watch out for was undoubtedly the host country's (China) team, who typically dominate this sport.

As predicted, the team did very well, but the team faced stiff competition from rival nations like Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar.

Here's a rundown of all the highlights from the competition.

Table of Contents

The Highlights and Results

Day 1 - 200m

On the first day of the competition, the Chinese men's team nabbed a clean victory in the 200m, leading the way for the whole race and finishing about a dragon's ahead away from second place, which went to Thailand.

Third place went to Indonesia.

The women's 200m had almost the exact same results. Gold went to China, while second went to Indonesia and third going to Thailand.

Day 2 - 500m

The Chinese team continued their dominance on day 2.

The 500m men's event was surprisingly even closer than the 200m.

Thailand got off the line fast, securing them an early lead. China kept pushing and just edged them out at the finish line, grabbing gold with a time of 2:09.152, narrowly beating Indonesia who got silver with a time of 2:09.162.

Third place went to Thailand, who finished with a time of 2:09.822.

The women's 500m had China getting out to a comfortable lead, which gradually widened throughout the race as no other team was able to close the gap. They finished first, with second going to Indonesia and third going to Myanmar who just edged out Thailand during the final sprint to the line.

Day 3 - 1000m

On the final day of the competition, China was looking to be unbeatable going into the 1000m.

In the men's 1000m, China got out to a huge early lead within the first 250m. Indonesia found themselves in fifth place trailing quite far behind. Gradually the rest of the pack started walking up on China, and during the last 250m, Indonesia slowly edged out China right at the last moment, winning the 1000m by just 0.047 seconds. Third place went to Myanmar.

 

 

 

 

 

“Indonesia is quite strong,” said Chinese competitor Lv Luhui right after the race.

Chinese dominance continued with the women's event, however. They got off to a small lead within the first 250m and managed to keep it right till the line, securing their third and final gold medal. Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea were all jockeying for silver throughout the race, with it eventually going to Indonesia. South Korea narrowly beat out Thailand for bronze.

The team, led by Lee Hyeonjoo, said her sprint-oriented team had only prepared 20 days for the longer race, adding that they were more than pleased with third place.

“I am so happy now,” she said. “China is a strong team, they are very good. We just didn’t have as much power as them.”

Sources

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