The Czech Republic is a small European country, but it is home to an age-old Chinese sport. Dragon boat racing is becoming more popular in the Eastern European nation.
In Lake Olsovec, 200 paddlers take part in the Czech Dragon Boat Cup braving rain and cool temperatures. The best teams will get the opportunity to compete in the European and world championship.
“We are holding the second race for the 2009 Czech Cup,” said Zdenek Janecek, Dragon Boat Cup organizer. “We hold a series of races and this is the highest competition in dragon boat racing in the Czech Republic.”
The Czech Republic is new to this sport, but already earned two first prizes last year alone at the European championship and the Malaysian world championship.
So what makes Czech teams so successful?
“I think we are very well organized. And this is often where other countries envy us,” Janecek said. “We are also constantly working on communications and public relations.”
Trainer Petr Prochazka says team cooperation to be the most important and hardest thing to do. “Every team member needs to be unique, and the hardest thing probably is to create unity amongst the team,” he said. “Most important is the willingness to cooperate and to trust. This is the nice thing about it."
The Czech Republic will be hosting the world championship this August.
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