Hundreds of expats race dragon boats at Shanghai Water Sports Center on Saturday. Twelve teams, including one from Shanghai Daily, participated in the event to celebrate the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival.

A group of German paddlers from the BEHR Group beat all comers at an expat dragon boat race in Qingpu District on Saturday, finishing the 500-meter course in an impressive two minutes and eight seconds.

Twelve teams competed in two heats, with the winner decided based on finishing time.

While only one team could win the event, it seemed clear that all 12 teams in the competition had a great time, despite some sore muscles and sunburn at the end of the day.

Mario, a paddler from the second-place team, said the race was "both exciting and exhausting."

Many of the paddlers had never raced a dragon boat before, and most of them were randomly set up in teams during a bus ride to the race site.

"We are so happy to have the chance to come here and get to know people from around the world and participate in this unique Chinese event," said Michael Patton, captain of the boat Yi Dragon.

This year's competition, organized by Shanghai Daily, iMandarin and Shanghai Expat, was more than double the size of last year's inaugural event, with about 240 people taking part.

Some paddlers said they would like to see a few changes next year.

"I hope the race can attract more people - not only expatriates, but also some from the Chinese community," said Tony Dangio, from Club Italian.

"I hope they list every team's result, since we all tried our best and want to know our position in the race," said one paddler. Organizers only announced the times of the top three teams.

On the same day, more than 10,000 residents watched 24 teams paddling for the Suzhou Creek Dragon-boat Race Championship. The Shanghai Maritime University team won the event.

(Shanghai Daily June 13, 2005)