The Hungarian Dragon Boat Federation is a Member of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) and recognised by the IDBF as the specific Governing Body for Dragon Boating in Hungary.
Hungarian history
Dragon boating in Hungary
In Hungary the history of dragon boating started in 1995 through a relationship with the German PG Mannheim kayak-canoe club. In this team several Hungarian kayak-canoe paddler from Győr and Paks were drafted for a position. Such a team competed at the IV Dragon Boat Club Crew European Championship organized in Nottingham. The team complemented by Hungarians returned home with several gold medals. The success achieved in England and the atmosphere of the competition brought the idea to spread this spectacular sport in Hungary and to take part in the international competitions with an independent Hungarian team.
The first milestone was the foundation of the Dragon Boat Clubs in Győr and Rába in February 1997. The members of the two Győr-based clubs gave the Hungarian team, which competed in
In 1998, the Hungarian Dragon Boat Federation was founded and admitted to the European Dragon Boat Federation (EDBF).
The year 2003 brought great momentum to Hungarian dragon boating. Besides the already existing boat, 3 more boats arrived into the country making it possible to devise a national competition scheme.
The Hungarian Dragon Boat Federation held the 1st Hungarian Dragon Boat Championship on the 13th of September 2003. At the competition 5 teams of the 3 member associations competed in open and mixed classes.
In May 2004 the Rába Dragon Boat Club organized the 1st Győr Dragon Boat Festival, where 31 teams took part. This same year, the Club returned from the 7th Prague Dragon Boat Festival victoriously and also in this year, the Hungarian national team took three fourth positions at the World Championship in Stockton in England.
On the 21st-22nd of May 2005, at the 2nd Győr Dragon Boat Festival, already 49 teams (among them, Ukrainian, German and Slovak crews) competed with each other.
In 2006 Dragon Boat Festivals were held at two venues. The clubs and amateur crews competed in Győr in May and in Székesfehérvár in September.
In
In 2007, the Dragon Boat festival system grew to extend over five sites (Győr, Fadd-Dombori, Szeged, Budapest and Székesfehérvár), which from then on included in part the Hungarian Championship and the Hungarian Cup as well. With their 2007 championship results Hungarian competitors qualified with over seven teams for the following European Championship.
In 2008, at the 8th Dragon Boat European Championship organized in Sabaudia in Italy the Hungarian Dragon Boat national team won one silver and three bronze medals. The Senior mixed team placed second in the 2000-meter Marathon distance and the Senior women’s and the Premier mixed national teams came third. The Senior women’s team also won a bronze medal on the 250-meter distance.
This wonderful success of the Hungarians was not even hindered by the fact that the 150 crew members had to self-finance the entire participation cost.
The Italian sea-shore town situated 60 kms south of Rome was loud from several thousand zealous spectators and the drums of the dragon boats for three days. The more than 1450 competitors delegated from 14 countries (from the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Norway, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Slovakia and from the Ukraine) and those cheering with them filled with life this beach town, sleepy after the holiday season.
The Hungarian Dragon Boat Federation has 14 member associations at present. These are as follows:
Rába Dragon Boat Club | www.rabadragon.hu
Dragon Aqua SE | www.dragonaquase.extra.hu
Duna Dragons Dragon boats and Hikers’ Associations, Vác | www.dunaisarkanyok.hu
Pécs Dragon Boat Sports Associations | www.pse.uw.hu
Paks Dragon Boat Club
Dunaföldvár Sport Supporting Associations
Tata Dragon Boat and Hikers’ Associations | www.tataisarkanyok.hu
Arrabona Dragon Boat Club | www.arrabonasc.hu
Fadd SE Dragon Boat Section
Szolnok Dragon Boat Club Sports Associations | www.sarkanyhajo.109.hu
Kalász DSE Dragon Ace Section | www.dragonasz.5mp.eu
Sugo Dragon Boat Club
Szegedi Dragon Boat Associations | www.szegedi-sarkanyhajo.eoldal.hu
DVSC Dragon Heart Dragon Boat Section | www.sarkanysziv.5mp.eu
Mass sport and team building
Apart from the club teams’ competitions, the Hungarian Dragon Boat Federation’s aim is to spread and popularise this way of sport at an amateur level as well. It is not a hidden agenda here to search for new recruits, as well as to look for support. The best way to do so (as it turned out in the last six years) is arranging a festival series on a national level.
22 determined people, together, towards one goal, in one boat. This already shows that this sport requiring a large number of people is a team sport, where good individual technique is not enough. There is much more than that to dragon boating. Successes and results can only be achieved together, in harmony, paying attention to each other.
There is no real mass sport without enthusiastic amateurs...
“Although we have taken part in the dragon boat competition - which by the way also serves as a great team building exercise - for the first time, we can say that we got into the finals without difficulties.”
“Sunshine and bright weather awaited the participants the supporters and the organizers at the rowing field of Sukoró on Saturday morning; and it seemed that the stormy winds of Friday disappeared by Saturday. Fourteen teams entered for the competition and because several of them had been returning for years now, to tell the truth, we did not even expect to make it to the semi-finals. Our trainer, who we met during training at Kopaszi-gát, did not share our views however. He saw potential in the Nav N Go team, he came to the competition and even got us to take him as our helmsman...”
“...We finished in fourth place and were the last ones in the finals but we did this as a team that only a month ago did not even know what a dragon boat was and took part in a mere three (!) training sessions in total. All in all, we were satisfied at the end of the day...”
“We hope our team will stay together and further competitions will add to the fame of Nav N Go.”
2009 is the year of the dragon boat sport in Hungary
The event series of the NOKIA Dragon Boat Festivals 2009 are held country wide, as well as the Week of Dragons 2009 Festival and European Championship in the Lágymányos Bay in Budapest
In 2009, the series of Dragon Boat Festivals already completing its 6th year continued. The organizer of these competitions, Dragon Active Ltd organized the festivals at the already well-known 5 sites this year. Club teams and enthusiastic amateur crews could compete with each other. The first station of the series was traditionally in Győr, in the “hometown” of Hungarian dragon boating where already the VI. Dragon Boat Festival has been held this year. This was followed by the VII. Hungarian Championship and the III. Fadd-Dombor Dragon Boat Festival from the 5th to 7th June.
Afterwards, July 2009 the Budapest Dragon’s Week took place, including the III Budapest Dragon Boat Festival and the 13th Club Crew European Championship. This same year, the festival series continued on the South-Alföld. The III. Szegedi Dragon Boat Festival on the 5th and 6th September added some colour to the Szeged International Tisza Fish Festival’s programme. Just as in the last four years, the V. Székesfehérvár Dragon Boat Festival closed the series of festivals at the weekend of 25th to 27th of September. Further information can be found on the website www.sarkanyhajofesztivalok.hu.
The list of the dragon boat events is not complete yet, since the Hungarian dragon boat paddlers participated other national and international events. The end of August 2009 another Central European capital, Prague welcome the Dragon Boat World Championship.
“Come on let’s Dragon!”
Hungarian success on the 13th European Dragon Boat Club Crew Championship, Budapest
The 10th to 12th of July, one of the most prestigious dragon boat events of Europe, the 13th Club Crew European Championship attracting many foreign and Hungarian competitors took place in our capital. Organized by the Hungarian Dragon Boat Federation, the European Championship was held under the supervision of the European Dragon Boat Federation (EDBF).
The European Championship brought a great hit for he Hungarian crews and the dragon boating sport. During the three days long event Hungarian teams won 8 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze medals. The championship was hosted in the brand new Lagymanyosi Bay and Park, in southern Budapest. The 200m, 500m and 2000m races were held in open, mix and women categories for age groups: Juniors, Premiers, Seniors and Gran Dragons. There were 86 crews taking part with over 1.800 participants from Hungary and other European countries.
Hungarian Dragon Aqua SE Senior team (mixed and women) won 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze medals. The Junior mixed team of Raba DBC won gold medals on all 3 distances. The Dunaföldvar Junior open team added another 2 gold and 1 silver medal. The Senior team of the Dunai Sarkanyok Club of Vac won a bronze medal. The Premier crew of the Budapest based Dragonasz after winning 4 silver and 1 bronze medal won the final race of the championship and become gold medalist on
For further details, please visit the website www.dragonboat.hu, for information concerning the European Championship!
Successful Hungarian participation in 2009 on the 9th Dragon Boat World Championships in Prague
The 26th to 31st of August Prague hosted the most prestigious international competition in dragon boating, which is held every two years. This year, 25 countries’ (Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Hungary, China, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Macao, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore , Slovakia, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine and the U.S.) national teams could compete on 200, 500, 1000 and
The Hungarian team with its 135 athletes experienced a lot and achieved several shiny medals in Prague, on the world championship. The first day on 2000m the Hungarian Senior open team gained the brightest medal of all, the gold. The 18-23 age group U23 mixed team with their 2nd position won silver medal. Senior mixed team added a bronze on 2000m to the Hungarian results. The 1000m races, taking place the 2nd day, did not bring any outstanding results for the Hungarian troops. The third day of competition, on 200m and the forth day on 500m the U23 Junior mixed team achieved 3rd place position and got bronze medals both races.
Results and photos available on the official site of the 9th Dragon Boat World Championship 2009 www.dragonboat2009.com
1998 Rome World Championship Premier Mixed 2000m 6th place
1999 Nottingham World Championship Premier Open 500m 4th place
Premier Open 250m 5th place
Premier Open 1000m 7th place
2003 VI Prague Dragon Boat Festival Mixed 320m 2nd place (Rába SC)
Open 320m 4th place (Rába SC)
2004 VII Prague Dragon Boat Festival Mixed 320m 1st place (Rába SC)
2004 Stockton World Championship Premier Open 250m 4th place
Premier Mixed 250m 4th place
Premier Open 2000m 4th place
2005 VIII Prague Dragon Boat Festival
– Nations’ Cup Open 320m 3rd place (Rába SC, Sea Lanus, DragonSE)
Mixed 320m 2nd place (Rába SC)
2006 Prague World Championship Premier Mixed 2000m 1st place
Senior Open 2000m 1st place
Senior Mixed 200m 1st place
Senior Mixed 500m 1st place
Premier Mixed 200m 2nd place
Premier Mixed 500m 2nd place
Junior Mixed 200m 2nd place
Junior Mixed 500m 2nd place
Junior Open 200m 3rd place
Junior Open 500m 3rd place
2007 Saint Petersburg
Club Crew World Championship Senior Mixed 2000m 3rd place
Senior Mixed 200m 3rd place
Senior Mixed 500m 3rd place
2007 Sydney World Championship Premier Open 2000m 4th place
2008 Sabaudia World Championship Senior Mixed 2000m 2nd place
Senior Women’s 2000m 3rd place
Senior Women’s 200m 3rd place
Premier Mixed 2000m 3rd place