The 4th IDBF World Cup to be held in October 2024 – Miluo City, China

The IDBF together with the Chinese Dragon Boat Association (CDBA), the Miluo City Government in China, and CCTV, has extended invitations to 12 IDBF member countries, including the host nation China, to compete in the 4th IDBF World Cup. The event is scheduled to take place in Miluo City from 22nd to 28th October 2024, with racing taking place over 2 to 3 days between 25th to 27th October.

“The 4th Edition of the IDBF World Cup in 2024 has great symbolic value as the IDBF and the CDBA bring dragon boating back to Miluo City, where Qu Yuan lived and died in 278 BC” said IDBF President Claudio Schermi. “The aim of the new format for the World Cup is to guarantee representation across all five IDBF Continental Federations. I’m confident that Africa will have a berth at the next World Cup in 2026. On behalf of the IDBF, I express my gratitude to the Government of Miluo, the CDBA for their invaluable efforts in realizing this project, and to CCTV for broadcasting the event to all our dragon boat sport fans worldwide.”

Team entries
To ensure global representation at the World Cup, the IDBF have allocated team entries according to the following quotas:

• 4 teams from Asian Dragon Boat Federation (ADBF)
• 3 teams from European Dragon Boat Federation (EDBF)
• 2 teams from Pan American Dragon Boat Federation (PADBF)
• 2 teams from Oceania Dragon Boat Federation (ODBF)
• 1 team from China (host nation).

Racing format
Mixed crews will compete in Standard Boats across the 100m, 200m, and 500m straight-line race distances.

Open and Women’s crews will compete in Small Boats, participating in a 400m team relay race and a 1000m team pursuit race.

The Small Boat crews will combine to form the Standard Boat Mixed crew.

Selected Representative Teams
Asia
Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Macau, and Thailand
China (host nation)

Europe
Germany, Great Britain and the Ukraine

Pan America
Canada and the United States of America

Oceania
Australia and New Zealand

Related news: IDBF President Claudio Schermi – visits Miluo, China the host city for the 4th IDBF World Cup

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International Dragon Boat Federation
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IDBF President Claudio Schermi – visits Miluo, China the host city for the 4th IDBF World Cup

The IDBF World Cup is back! It will be held in Miluo City (汨罗)in Hunan Province, China – the original ‘hometown of dragon boating’ in October this year.

Claudio Schermi, President of the IDBF along with today Peter Tang, IDBF General Secretary ,visited Miluo city to better understand the traditions and culture of dragon boat, the sport and the industry as a part of the site inspection and preparations for the 4th IDBF World Cup.

Also in attendance from the IDBF were Li Haigang, IDBF 5th Vice President, and He Yi, Chair of the IDBF Cultral and Heritage Commission. Claudio Schermi and delegates visited the Miluo River International Dragon Boat Race Centre, the Dragon Boat House in Quzi City, Quzi Cultural Park, and a local dragon boat building company.

The IDBF President participated in an exchange meeting with local government, provincial sports bureau and the Chinese Dragon Boat Association where he discussed the logistics required to organise international dragon boat competitions.

Claudio Schermi and the IDBF are very much looking forward to returning to Miluo, where the very first IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships was held in 1995.

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International Dragon Boat Federation
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Mr Claudio Schermi, President of IDBF cultural visit to ‘World Dragon Boat City’ Wenzhou, China

Zhang Zhenfeng (Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee), on behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, welcomed the arrival of Claudio Schermi, President of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) and his delegation. He stated that Wenzhou (中国温州) has a profound cultural heritage, a surge of entrepreneurship and innovation, an open and inclusive urban environment, and a good ecological environment. It is a city that coexists with dragon boat culture and integrates with the spirit of dragon boating. Wenzhou has a long history of dragon boat sports, complete facilities, and a solid mass foundation. It is currently striving to build itself into a “World Dragon Boat City,” contributing to the promotion of excellent traditional culture and the international development of dragon boat sports. He hoped that the IDBF could better guide Wenzhou in organizing related dragon boat events, promoting dragon boat culture, enhancing international exchanges, and promoting the implementation of mutual consensus, further promoting the internationalisation of dragon boat sports, and assisting in the construction of a “World Dragon Boat City,” allowing “Wenzhou” to showcase its unique brilliance.

Claudio Schermi thanked Wenzhou for its contributions to the development of dragon boat sports. He stated that Wenzhou’s dragon boat sport has a wide mass base and world-class venues. The IDBF will continue to deepen cooperation with Wenzhou by supporting international events and other activities to better develop dragon boat sports more quickly.

During their stay in Wenzhou, Claudio Schermi and his delegation visited the Tanghe Dragon Boat Racing History, Dragon Boat Sports Centre, Dragon Boat Museum, and Dragon Boat Academy.

He Yi, Secretary-General of the Chinese Dragon Boat Association, Wang Chengyun, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Dragon Boat Association and Chairman of the Zhejiang Province Dragon Boat Association, and city leaders Chen Yingxu and Chen Kuan attended the meeting.

Did you know?
Wenzhou is known as the “Famous Dragon Boat City in China”. Dragon boating in Wenzhou is a national sport with wide participation and great influence. Wenzhou maintains two Guinness World Records for “the largest number of participating teams” and “the largest number of participants”. The dragon boat spirit of “working together in the same boat and striving for the first” is integrated with the Wenzhou people’s spirit of “dare to be the first, especially capable of entrepreneurship and innovation”. The city also hosted dragon boat racing for the 19th Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023.

Enquiries
International Dragon Boat Federation
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The post Inaugural Speech by Claudio Schermi – President of the IDBF appeared first on International Dragon Boat Federation.

What a year it was! It started in New Zealand with the IBCPC World Festival for the Breast Cancer Paddlers. For me a breath of positive energy and incredible emotions. For the 3rd time I had the honor to assist to this event, in Sarasota 2014, in Firenze 2017 and, after pandemic, in New Zealand 2023. My wishes go the Aix Les Bains in France where next event will be held in 2026.

Then it was the time of the IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championships with great participation and top level athletes competing for the medals, showing the highest quality of our sport. My wishes go to the organizers of the next IDBF Club Crews World Championships in Ravenna Italy, my home country.

The Asian Games and the Continental Championships and so many festivals and championships worldwide including snow dragons and ice dragons events completed our programme. My wishes go to the IIDBF Ice Dragon Organizers of the next World Championships in Canada in February 2024.

At the end of this year, we can look back with great pride, because we can say: we did it. Dragon Boat finally fully re-start after pandemic.

And we did it together, we did in great solidarity and we did it for the athletes.

In Thailand, in August after the World Championships, we had the IDBF Congress and I had the honour to be elected President of the International Dragon Boat Federation. I will take office in the new year and I wish all the best to my predecessor Mike Thomas, with a special note of thanks for is service during the past 8 years.

The IDBF life will continue and next year will also be the opportunity to discuss new reforms to the IDBF strategic plan.

I wish in 2024 that we will put forward an agenda to support the pillars of our next IDBF goals as IOC recognition, development in new nations, rejuvenation of the sport, new official events in the calendar and revenue generation for our international sport federation to reaffirm IDBF as the governing body for dragon boat and to show that we are able to achieve these goals all together.

The 2024 will be the Wood Dragon Year. It comes every 60 years!

It has to remind us the respect that all dragon boaters should deserve to the Chinese traditions of our sport, today well developed in about 90 nations of the all 5 continents.

The Wood Dragon Year represent strength, courage, creativity and innovation and I wish to myself and all dragon boaters to be inspired to these values.

I wish that the Wood Dragon will bring to you and to your families authority, dignity, honor, success, prosperity and good fortune.

Together, as a team, we will achieve great results for our dragon boat sport.

Happy new year!!!

Claudio Schermi
2024 incoming IDBF President

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It has been a long journey since I first paddled in a dragon boat in the early 80s. Helping to establish the British Dragon Boat Association in the late 80s led to this wonderful journey, to serve the international dragon boat community. Initially as Vice Chair and Chair of the Competition and Technical Commission and for the past eight years, it has been a great privilege to serve as the President of our remarkable Federation.

It was a great honour to be the joint Chief Official at our first world championships held in Yue Yang in 1995. I learnt so much from Zhou Liwei who was my partner as Chief Official. It was disappointing not to be able to attend the championship in Thailand this year, due to my ill health, and the opportunity to renew my friendship with Liwei and to meet all of my colleagues in person.

I am very proud of the work I did, with others, to establish technical specifications for the dragon boat and paddle, which enabled the standardised manufacture of this equipment around the world and assisted with the development of the sport worldwide. Developing the Race Official training scheme also led to significant improvement in standards of officiating at Championships.

In the past eight years we have focused on improving the governance of our sport with many policies introduced and earlier this year we approved new Statutes and Bye Laws to take our sport forward. We have developed a strong gender balance in our committee structures which must be maintained. The ability to hold meetings by telecommunication methods has greatly increased the opportunities for discussion and meetings on a worldwide basis. The views and opinions of our athletes are so important and the development of the Athletes Commission has enabled their views to be expressed in all decision making processes. We have also focussed on increasing attendance at championships. Record numbers of athletes, clubs and countries attended our championships until Covid dealt its devastation on our sport worldwide. We are now slowly, but steadily recovering.

It is unfortunate that since I became President we have been unable to gain recognition by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which would do so much to solve disputes and help with further development. Let us all hope that the IOC will soon open the application process which has been closed since 2016.

Alan van Caubergh, our Treasurer for the past twelve years, will also be retiring at the end of this year. Alan has played a huge part in our sport. He should also be recognised for the tremendous work he has done and I recommend that at the next IDBF Congress he is recognised as an Honorary Member of the IDBF.

We have developed a strong team over the past eight years with an excellent manner of team work, and consensus in decision making. My deepest thanks to all Council members for your wonderful contribution to the development of our fantastic sport.

May I take this opportunity to wish Claudio, the President Elect, all the best for the future.

Best wishes to you all for the coming Festive season. May you all have a happy and enjoyable time with family and friends.

Mike Thomas IDBF President

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• align with good practice;
• remove existing inconsistencies and anomalies;
• improve clarity for those whose first language is not English; and
• retain the current management and governance structures.

Other policies which the Executive Committee have been working on in readiness for the next round of the Olympic Recognition process include:

• IDBF Table of Authorities
• IDBF Travel Policy
• IDBF Ethics Policy (update in progress)
• IDBF Transgender Policy (in progress)

Currently in action is also a working group to review the 2000m racing rules and regulations and the points system for the Nations Cup.

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Read the December 2021 Issue of Longzhou News.

• Message from Mike
• How the IDBF began
• IDBF30 Celebrations
• 2021 Hall of Fame Inductees
• 18th Ordinary Congress – part 1
• CCWC2022 Bulletin 1
• Help support paradragons PADs team rebuild

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Send your contributions to idbfnews@dragonboat.sport

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The post Longzhou Newsletter December 2021 (Issue 5 Volume 4) appeared first on International Dragon Boat Federation.

Olympic Edition

Read the August 2021 Issue of Longzhou News..

• Message from Mike
• Dragon Boat and the Olympics
• Road to IOC Recognition
• Tokyo 2020 Statement
• Anti-Doping Education

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Send your contributions to idbfnews@dragonboat.sport

Subscribe to Longzhou and other official IDBF news.

The post Longzhou Newsletter August 2021 (Issue 4 Volume 4) appeared first on International Dragon Boat Federation.

Read the June 2021 issue

30th Anniversary Edition

• Happy 30th Birthday to the IDBF, from our President, Mike Thomas
• Message of Congratulations from CDBA and HKCDBA
• A Brief History of IDBF
• HKCDBA Celebrates 30 years and 1st HK Dragon Boat Race on Land
• IDBF30: new merchandise, photo competition and Hall of Fame

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