Attracting nearly 300 oarsmen (both men and women) from nine teams: Huong River Cruise, An Hoa, Vy Da (Hue City); Huong Can, Trieu Son Trung (Huong Tra); Phu Mau (Phu Vang); Thuy Van (Huong Thuy); Quang Phuoc (Quang Dien) and Phong Hoa (Phong Dien), each team participated in 10 races, competing for the prizes: offering, break and money.

Mr. Le Ngoc Tu, Head of Sports Management Office of the Department of Culture and Sports, said that this year, the teams were well prepared and the quality of athletes participating in the race was uniform. So in many races, the boats were neck and neck, creating a thrilling and exciting atmosphere in both men and women races.

As always, small collisions between the oarsmen were unavoidable, especially when they tried to out-row the other teams for the finish line. However, boat racing is such. Collisions happened on the water, but when ashore, the teams would pat each other’s shoulders and laugh it all off.

After the morning competition in the enthusiastic cheers of thousands of spectators along the Huong River, the results are as follow: Phu Mau had a brilliant success when winning the first place in the break prize, first place in the team prize, and first place in the all-three prize. Huong River Cruise and Thuy Van held second and third place, respectively, for the team prize.

Some images from the 2018 traditional boat race to celebrate Independence day on the morning of 2/9:

Thousands of people came from early morning to cheer for the races

Get set – Ready – Go

The distance between teams this year was fairly uniform

Competing

Rowing rhythmically

Crossing the finish line

A team would only be considered the winner after crossing the finish line if a team member could quickly put the oar in its resting place

After the men’s races, the races of female athletes were just as exciting

Some teams even used tricks to stop other teams from advancing

Therefore, river traffic police and referees always followed the race boats, especially the river parts when tricks and flips happened to timely intervene in the event of a collision.

Of course, not all teams were like that. Some teams chatted with each other as they raced.

And even if they could not win the prize, they still tried their best to complete the race

By Han Dang