Dragon boat race listed as demonstration sport at Paris Olympics

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China

Dragon boat race listed as demonstration sport at Paris Olympics

2024-06-07 16:52 Last Updated At：18:27

A dragon boat race will be held as a demonstration sport at the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympics, said Thomas Konietzko, president of the International Canoe Federation (ICF) recently.

Konietzko has credited the inclusion to collaborative efforts between the ICF and China Media Group (CMG), supported by the International Olympic Committee.

At a launch ceremony of CMG's gala celebrating Dragon Boat Festival held in Beijing on Thursday, Konietzko conveyed his best wishes to the Chinese people via video link and celebrated the global popularity of dragon boat race, as well as the upcoming ICF Dragon Boat World Cup and the first International Super Cup of Canoe and Kayak in China.

The ICF Dragon Boat World Cup is scheduled to take place in Zigui County, central China's Hubei Province in October. Zigui is renowned as the birthplace of Qu Yuan (about 340 BC-278 BC), a loyal statesman and a patriotic poet in Chu, which was a major state in the Warring States Period (475 BC-221 BC). The Dragon Boat Festival is a day to commemorate Qu Yuan. The first International Super Cup of Canoe and Kayak will be held in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, in October.

This year's CMG's dragon boat race will kick off in the city of Yancheng, east China's Jiangsu Province, during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, which runs from June 8 to 10.

As a representative of Chinese culture, the dragon boat race serves as a traditional practice during the Dragon Boat Festival to honor the life and legacy of poet Qu Yuan. This festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar Chinese calendar.

Russia strikes Ukrainian targets, Ukraine repels multiple Russian attacks

2025-04-10 13:49 Last Updated At：14:07

Russia said on Wednesday that its forces had continued to strike Ukrainian military targets, while Ukraine reported the same day that it had repelled multiple Russian attacks.

A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry said the Russian troops struck a Ukrainian tactical missile production enterprise, a workshop building producing small bombs for drones and other strategic objectives.

Meanwhile, Russian military operations targeted Ukrainian personnel and military equipment in multiple locations, including Kharkov, Donetsk and Lugansk, while the Russian air defense systems shot down over 300 Ukrainian drones.

Furthermore, the ministry accused the Ukrainian government of four attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the past 24 hours.

On the same day, the General Staff of Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that its forces had repelled the Russian attacks in the Pokrovsk direction.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Russian forces continued to launch operations in the Kharkov and Sumy regions, but Ukrainian military's actions in Russia's border region of Belgorod can prevent the Russian forces from launching new attacks in the Kharkov and Sumy directions.

He also noted that in the past 24 hours, Russia launched 55 drones towards targets in Ukraine, with multiple residential areas being attacked and civilian infrastructure suffering severe damage.