The Harbin station of the 2024-2025 Ice Dragon Boat Race kicked off on December 28-29, with 20 teams from across the country and nearly 400 athletes participating. Compared to the first ice dragon boat race, this year's event has been upgraded in scale, expanding from 7 stations in 4 provinces to 12 stations in 6 provinces, crossing Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, and Inner Mongolia. It is the largest annual ice dragon boat competition in the history of northern China.
Dragon boat racing is part of China's intangible cultural heritage, conveying the spirit of unity and progress of the Chinese nation through its unique cultural charm and profound historical background. Ice dragon boat racing, on the other hand, is an innovative and expanded version of the traditional dragon boat sport, retaining the technical and competitive aspects of the traditional sport while breaking through the seasonal limitations of dragon boat racing to become a new ice sport.
With the referee's signal, the race began. The athletes rowed in unison to the sound of the helmsman's commands, their oars splashing and ice flowers flying. The dragon boats, like arrows from the bow, cut through the cold air on the ice surface, racing towards the finish line. After several rounds of competition, the defending champion failed to retain their title, and the Inner Mongolia dragon boat team finally won the champion.
The competition between the north and the south was intense and full of highlights. As the exclusive energy drink sponsor of the event, War Horse added a War Horse Energy Challenge, in addition to the traditional dragon boat tug-of-war and speed races.
This included the first-ever "Ice Dragon Boat Drift and Park" challenge, which required the 8.5-meter-long dragon boats to accelerate in a straight line, drift and turn, and precisely park between 10-meter-wide cones and come to a steady stop. This was an unprecedented challenge that required consideration of factors such as ice friction, wind force, speed, turning timing, and balance control, presenting a significant test for the coordination and skills of the helmsman, rowers, and drummer.
Both the northern and southern teams pulled out all the stops to win the competition. After three attempts, Hunan Mayang Dragon Boat Team representing the south, was the first to complete the challenge, achieving a breakthrough. Many athletes said that in the extremely cold weather, intense physical activity led to significant energy consumption. War Horse energy drinks quickly replenished their energy, playing a crucial role in the competition.
The War Horse brand also came up with a unique idea by setting up interactive activities with distinct northeastern characteristics on site: participants could break ice with a wooden hammer to get a War Horse energy drink; War Horse custom ice pops brought unique winter fun in the north, enjoying a refreshing ice pop of energy in the freezing weather.
As the host city of the 9th Asian Winter Games, Harbin has been making unremitting efforts to promote ice and snow culture. Various experience activities have attracted many tourists to visit. As an emerging mass ice and snow sports event, ice dragon boat racing reflects the trend towards making ice and snow sports more fun and accessible in the post-Winter Olympics era. It has also created a unique urban sports IP for Harbin. War Horse's novel and bold attempt not only injected new vitality into ice dragon boat racing but also showcased its expanded possibilities and appeal to the public. Through concrete actions, War Horse, as a national energy drink brand continues to inject innovative energy into traditional culture and ice and snow sports, contributing to their development.
