Sunday 12th May 2019 saw over 350 people come to Salford Quays to compete on a gloriously bright and sunny day for the nineth annual Salford Dragon Boat Festival.

Split into 17 teams, they raced in a series of three-boat heats with each team racing in different lanes and against different opponents. After each race the results went up on the score board for all to see and compare.

Dragon boating is the world's oldest water sport starting in China around 2,500 years ago. With the sport's exact origin now lost in legend, all we can say for certain is that dragon boating is now the World's second largest sport by participation (second only to football!).

Dragon boating is quick to pick up and progressive in nature so by race two, teams were gelling together and by round three, first timers and returning teams were competing on equal footing. This meant that until the final qualifying race had been completed, the qualifiers for the Grand Final would not be known for sure - which proved so true as the Lane 1 & Lane 2 teams in the last qualifying race both pushed Grand Final contenders Paddling Paras into forth place.