On the morning of June 11th, one day before the Dragon Boat Festival, the third Dragon Boat Racing of Chinese Elite Universities and the second Dragon Boat Racing of Universities in Hangzhou kicked off in Hangzhou Xixi National Wetland Park. To welcome the “Dragon Boat Festival”, 7 universities of the “C9 League” and 7 universities of Hangzhou competed in terms of coordinating power and paddling speed. Vice party secretary of Zhejiang University, Ren Shaobo declared the launch-on of the competition.

The Dragon Boat Racing of Chinese Elite Universities was initiated by Zhejiang University on the “Dragon Boat Festival” of 2011. According to the strategic cooperation agreement between Hangzhou and Zhejiang University, the “Dragon Boat Racing of Chinese Elite Universities” will be permanently settled in Xixi Wetland Park of Hangzhou. This year, the competition has also attracted 7 famous enterprises to participate for the first time. In order to enhance the enjoyment of the competition, competition of cheerleaders, the “Dragon Baby”, was newly added this year.

After the fierce competing, teams of Zhejiang University and of Chinese University of Science and Technology won first prize among the “C9 League” universities. “There’s a Qizhen Lake in Zijingang Campus, and we can start training whenever we want.” As a host, Zhejiang University has won the championship for three times consecutively. Student leader and PHD student of the Department of Energy Engineering, Li Chao, said that boat racing was to challenge ourselves and relying on the joint efforts of players.

The award ceremony provided further opportunities of exchanges for students from different universities. They presented their trainings and studies by video clips and also sang several songs that filled with youthful strength.