It’s also one of the only sports where mixed-gender teams compete at the highest level. Races have two categories: open, which is typically made up of men, and mixed, with 10 men and 10 women paddlers.ĭating back more than 2000 years, dragon boat racing is one of the world’s oldest sports. “Working as a team to get the boat to run properly and to beat the other boats appealed to my competitive side.” “It was difficult, but it was also a lot of fun,” Sergeant Welch said. It was the mixture of teamwork and physicality that attracted him to the sport. The engine rowers are typically the strongest athletes and sit in the middle the widest and heaviest area.
The paddlers work as a unit but each person has their own role.Īlthough he describes himself as an endurance paddler, Sergeant Welch expected to be selected for the sprint section of the boat - those up the back who accelerate the boat quickly. Selection involved a series of physical tests, including max chin-ups, straight-arm plank, 500m rowing erg and a dragon boat solo paddle, followed by a selection board assessment about how a person paddles in a crew.Įach boat has 20 paddlers, a sweep who steers and a drummer to keep pace. He made the team after being selected at a camp in Canberra earlier this year, where about 70 Aurora hopefuls were put through their paces. “China has the strongest team, they invented the sport,” Sergeant Welch said. He was recently selected for the national dragon boat racing team Senior B 50-59 division, called the Auroras, set to compete in Thailand against the world’s best. It’s what took the Australian Defence Force Academy military skills instructor from giving dragon boat racing a go at a Head Quarters Joint Operations Command sports day in 2015 to the world championships in August. While some struggle to get out of bed on Canberra’s dark and cold winter mornings, Sergeant Chris Welch is cutting Lake Burley Griffin’s icy surface with his paddle.
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