A dragon boat competation is held in East China's Zhejiang Province on Saturday. Photo: AFP

Sunday is one day ahead of China's traditional Dragon Boat Festival in 2021. Originated from China more than 2,500 years ago, dragon boating today is also a fast, fun and furious team-based paddling sport across the world, with thousands of fans in Australia.

About 3 kilometers away from Sydney's central business district, is located a departure point for paddlers going to start their training every day.

Facing the New South Wales (NSW) state championship next week, athletes from one of the clubs in Dragon Boats NSW started training from 7:30 am on Sunday. 

Coach of the club Chris Alexandrou, who has been an assistant coach for Australia team in the international dragon boat competition for more than 10 years, said dragon boating is also very popular in Australia.

He told Xinhua that there are currently over 60 affiliated dragon boat clubs scattered around the waterways of NSW with around 3,000 members in total.

The state championship that they are preparing for is just one of the eight regattas they hold every year. All members are very serious about the preparation. Though some of the regattas are competitions, most are just for fun. 

"The training is always very early in the morning or late at night after people finish work. Most of our members have full-time jobs, so that's why training is always after working time, and also once on the weekend," said Chenwan Li, president and official spokesperson of the club.

"For those members who will compete in the national competition, they probably need to do training every day and some extra exercises," Li told Xinhua.

Besides three water training sessions a week, such as paddling, most members also go to the gym to lift weights in order to be stronger for the competition.

"Dragon boating can keep us fit," Li said, adding that the oldest member in the club is 70 years old, but there is no special treatment for the older members because "they are as fit and strong as some of our paddlers in their 30s and 40s."

Coming from weeks of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the state championship race also became a chance for a reunion of the club members.

Li said that in the past, they had the Chinese New Year dragon boat celebration held in the most popular harbor in Sydney, the national race, and the International Dragon Boat Federation race, but all these were cancelled.

"When people were locked down, they lost social connections. A lot of sports clubs have lost a lot of their members just because of the lack of interaction during COVID-19," she said.

To minimize the impact of the pandemic on the club, Li's team set up a series of activities such as their single crafters training system, online gym program and some online social events to tighten the connections among all members, which helped maintain the club members in this season.

"Teamwork is the most important thing for dragon boating, so that's why being connected is necessary for the team," she said.

"Not only for training and competition, my team members are also like my family members," she added.