Charity of the Year

The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital Charity were nominated as Charity of the Year for 2015 more >>>

About the day:

Sunday 31st May saw 23 teams from across the region brave the unseasonably cold and wet weather to compete in what was, the largest Salford Dragon Boat Festival to date so far. Many of the teams were first timers to the exciting sport of dragon boating but all hoped to be recognised as the new: Dragon Boat Champions of Salford 2015.

Dragon boating is quick to pick up, progressive in nature and ideal for both experienced crews and novices alike. It is one of the reasons why so may people who watch those coming to Race The Dragon, realise that, it is one of those events that is just far too much fun to simply watch!

Prior to each team's first race, the team members partook the Race The Dragon safety briefing, where initial basic instruction and safety information was given. Once the briefing has been completed, each team member at that briefing was given a Race the Dragon wrist band as only people wearing those wrist bands are allowed into the dragon boats.

The race format this year was different to previous years owing to an accident on the M6 on the way to the event. A lorry driver, not realising the queue of traffic ahead of him was stationary until too late, collided with the back of the dragon boat trailer and in the process, wrecked one of the boats. Fortunately no one was hurt and we could still use the other three boats, but it did mean we were no longer be able to run our published program of 2-on-2 racing and instead had to drop to two rounds of 3-boat racing with the top nine teams then going through to three, 3-boat Minor Finals. The winners of each of those Minor Finals going through to the Grand Final where first across the line won.

In a thrilling Grand Final between the day's three single fastest timed teams, it was the Hail Mary's from Fission Nutrition who narrowly beat last year's Champions Gallowglass from Gallowglass (holders of the day's fastest time over the qualifying races) into second place, with Iron Oars from Hare.com coming third.

Over £15,000 raised in 2015:

This year's dragon boat festival has raised in excess of £15,000 already, with more still tome come in. It is expecteded the total will exceed £20,000 by the end on June. If you would like to help a team raise money for their charity, please click on one of the links below to visit their fund raising page with your donation.