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Li Wenyao, reporter of Chao News Client

What would it be like to see teachers, policemen, and office workers taking up their kayaks and chasing the waves? This scene was recently staged on the Xitang River in Gongshu District. On August 23, the Hangzhou Employees Kayak Competition, "Striving for a Strong Country and Rejuvenation, We Will Paddle the Boats and Pursue Our Dreams First", was successfully concluded. This year was the first time that the competition was upgraded to a city-level event, attracting more than 130 employee athletes from 17 teams from Gongshu District, Xihu District, Binjiang District, Yuhang District, Linping District, Qiantang District, Fuyang District, Lin'an District, Chun'an County, and Jiande City.

The competition included singles for men and women and a water bus board team competition. For a moment, hundreds of boats competed on the Xitang River, oars were flying, the river was surging, the silver waves were shining, and cheers came from the scene. Employees from the trade unions of enterprises on both sides of the strait were excited and closely followed the battle on the river.

Compared with the single-person event, the water bus board event, which required 6 people (4 men and 2 women) to complete, attracted everyone's interest because it required more teamwork. In order to maintain a consistent paddling frequency and avoid "capsulation", each team frequently used unusual tricks: some brought a small whistle on the board to unify the paddling frequency through the whistle, while others shouted the slogan "one, two, one". After fierce competition, the Hangzhou Education Union representative team finally won the first place in the water bus board event.

"We are all teachers, most of whom are born in the 1990s. We were put together temporarily for this competition." Team leader Xu Jianmin told the reporter that the secret of the team's victory is to observe the paddling movements of the previous teammate and strive to achieve synchronization. "In the process of training, we found that the turns should be as 'smooth' as ​​possible. The smaller the angle, the smoother it is and the more time it can save."

Because the scope and scale of the competition reached a new high this year, the participants in the canoeing competition included water sports novices who had never touched a paddle, senior water sports veterans who had checked in at many water bodies, and canoeing world champions. Wang Xiaoyan, who won the first place in women's single kayaking on behalf of the Fuyang District Federation of Trade Unions, was originally a member of the Zhejiang Province Canoeing Team and won the first place in the Asian Canoeing Championships and the World Cup. "After retiring in 2013, I haven't kayaked properly for more than ten years. It's very exciting and happy."

Kayaking on the Xitang River, Wang Xiaoyan was very happy to see the water sports move from competitive sports to the national fitness stage. She was very happy to see many young people and teenagers watching the game along the shore and cheering for the athletes. "Although kayaking is a niche sport, it is actually not that difficult and is especially suitable for the general public who want to play in the water. So I hope that more such national events will be held to drive the healthy development of this project." It is reported that in October this year, another event for Hangzhou employees - orienteering, will be held in Fuyang District.

The competition was hosted by the Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions and organized by the Gongshu District Federation of Trade Unions. Zheng Dongsheng, leader of the Gongshu District Federation of Trade Unions canoeing team, told Chao News that when recruiting and preparing for the competition, everyone was very enthusiastic and signed up very enthusiastically. "During the one-month preparation time, some teams paid for coaches to train more many times, just to perform well in the competition."

He said that the purpose of holding such an event is, first, to enrich the cultural activities of employees, and second, to use kayaking to bring the public closer to water sports. As a Gongshu native, Zheng Dongsheng also used kayaking to look at the streets where he had lived for a long time from a different perspective and discovered a different charm: the beautiful scenery of pedestrians on both sides of the river and the leisurely feeling of walking through the water. "This year we are going to use kayaking as an opportunity to explore more water sports possibilities." He smiled, "We will continue to maintain the tradition of carrying out water sports on the rivers in Gongshu District, and we will work hard to upgrade it in the future to hold more complex and interesting water sports competitions."

(Photo provided by Gongshu District Federation of Trade Unions)

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