Cityscape: Slice of life and scenes in Richmond
8/9/2019, 6 a.m.
Dragon boat racing marked its 10th year in Richmond with a festive event Saturday highlighted by the paddle-powered competition on the James River.
Location: Rocketts Landing in the East End.
Creative’s DonaSharon Dragons team celebrates after living up to the No. 1 on the boat and finishing first in one of the races in the Richmond International Dragon Boat Festival. Based on a 2,500-year- old Chinese boating tradition, the races feature teams of 22 people, including a drummer, a steerer and 20 synchronized oar wielders, propelling the 600-pound boats over a 500-meter course to vie for prizes. Richmond Sports Backers has staged the river races since 2010 in making the city a stop on the Major League Dragon Boat circuit. The Richmond event is one of eight preliminaries leading to the annual MLDB championships in Orlando in October. MLDB bills itself as the premier league, but notes that dragon boat racing has grown far bigger than its nine events. An estimated 250,000 people now participate in the sport nationally, according to MLDB, with a majority being women.
