25th Dragon Boat Festival: Paddlers make Old Stream boil
Drums and cheers echoed across the southern Old Stream for two days over the weekend. The paddles dipped evenly into the water at a brisk rhythm. Three boats at a time quickly glided past the spectators on the bank. The 25th Dragon Boat Festival as part of the Warnemünder Woche was well attended with almost 50 teams. It was organized by SV Breitling from Rostock.
On Saturday, 44 teams competed in the 280-meter distance. Berlin paddlers were clearly in the lead. Both winners' trophies - in the Mixed category at the Smallboat Cup and Mixed at the LT Cup - went to the ABC team from Berlin-Köpenick. The team from Berlin has been regularly competing at the Warnemünde Dragon Boat Festival for around 15 years. For the first time, both boats achieved a double victory over the longer distance. “The weather is great, it almost feels like a vacation,” said a paddler from the Köpenick team. The atmosphere among the teams and at the festival as a whole would also be very harmonious.
High praise for the festival conditions came from the Rostock Seebären. “No more is possible,” said the team. The team had virtually subscribed to victory since 2015 and only ended up in second place once last year. Due to illness, the home team had to struggle with a number of spontaneous failures this time and therefore thought they had fewer chances.
Almost all of the teams that traveled started in the 280 meters on Saturday and in the 100 meter sprint distance on Sunday. Only three teams were only registered in the sprint.
Organizer and fellow paddler Stefan Eichelmann is enthusiastic about this year’s festival: “The conditions were great. No comparison at all with 2022, where we had storms and rain.”
Winning teams 280 meter distance:
Mixed Small Boat Cup: ABC Team Köpenick
Mixed LT Cup: ABC Team Köpenick
Winning teams 100 meter distance:
Open: Rostock Sea Bears
Mixed small: Blue Bulls
Mixed Standard: Rostock Sea Bears
Ladies: ABC Team Köpenick
