On October 23, the 2021 Shanghai Rowing Open (hereinafter referred to as the Boat) was held in Suzhou Creek, near the Huangpu River. The sky is beautiful, the event is novel, and the two sides of the track have become an ocean of joy. On the first day, the 4.2 km competition was held in various categories. In the professional competition, Hubei won two championships in the men's and women's championships. In the men's competition of colleges and universities, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University team won the championship. In the future, the boat will be built into a city sports event under Shanghai's own brand.
Soft power: the embodiment of the city's brand image
Sporting events are the embodiment of a city's cultural enjoyment and spiritual life. In the 1990s, Shanghai hosted the 1993 East Asian Games and the 1997 Eight Games. Since the new century, Shanghai has hosted annual high-end events such as F1, tennis, snooker, and golf. These events are "high-end atmosphere and high-grade", which has played an important role in the city's external publicity and enriching the amateur life of citizens. In addition, Shanghai hosted the 2007 Women's World Cup and its opening and closing ceremonies, and the 2011 World Swimming Championships. Of course, the characteristic of these events is that the owners of the events do not belong to Shanghai.
Since 1996, the launch has been held. Since about 2013, it has been difficult to find a place to participate in the race. The first boat launch this year and the 26th year of the boat are both operated by Donghao Lansheng and are both local private label events in Shanghai.
Whether it is on the horse or on the boat, the goal is to benchmark the world's first-class, and contribute to Shanghai's basic construction of a world-famous sports city by 2025. Coincidentally, Boston has been successful in the marathon and rowing events, which is worth learning from Shanghai.
Since its inception in 1897, the Boston Marathon has become the world's oldest urban marathon, one of the world's marathon Grand Slam events, and a temple in the hearts of marathon runners. The Boston Marathon has registration criteria for all ages, commonly known as "BQ".
In fact, Boston also has the CHARLES River Rowing (HOCR) (HEAD OF CHARLES REGATTA), the most well-known and largest rowing race in the world. Since its inception in 1965, the tournament has grown in size. In 2019, the event attracted more than 2,300 teams to compete in 66 different categories, with more than 11,000 players, covering all ages from 14 to 85 years old.
The Charles River is 192 km long and the race section is in the Cambridge area. The race route runs from Boston University Shipyard to Northeastern University Shipyard, with a length of 4.8 kilometers, along the way to Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other well-known universities, the track to cross 6 bridges.
Wu Jining has coached the Chinese and Canadian national rowing teams, led the team to participate in the Beijing and London Olympic Games, and is currently the coach of the Guangdong Provincial Rowing Team. In 2010 and 2011, Wu Jining led the Canadian team to participate in the Charles River Rowing Race Men's Lightweight Eight Singles and Men's Open Eight Singles. He said: "There are many categories in this competition, and the highest level of the competition is almost the world championship level, such as the United States, Australia, New Zealand and other national teams will participate. ”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 tournament was not held. This year's Charles River Rowing also happens to start this weekend, from October 22 to 25, for a total of four days. Wu Jining said: "The Canadian women's team, which just won the women's eight-a-man boat championship at the Tokyo Olympics, will participate in the competition this year. This year, more than 1,900 boats competed, with 61 events competing. Among them, the Harvard and Yale confrontation is one of the reserved programs of the event. In fact, in addition to race days, the Charles River is also a training place for nearby colleges and rowing clubs most of the time. During my visit in 2014, I visited Boston and saw enthusiasts rowing in the Charles River.
Golden Business Card: Features of Independent IP Events
Sporting events are the embodiment of the soft power of the city, and are a silent presentation of moisturizing things. The jewel in the hearts of off-road enthusiasts is the Tour de Mont Blanc (UTMB). In 2009, only 1 person from China participated; in 2014, 289 from 289 in 2016, rising to 395 in 2018. The temple in the hearts of the world's triathlon lovers is Hawaii's Kona. The Kona World Triathlon Championships, held every year in the second week of October, is a great gathering for triathlon enthusiasts. More than 2,500 players participated in the 2019 Kona World Championships, of which 98 were professional players and the rest were in the age group, from 75 countries and regions. The tournament is also very traditional, with professional players using cannons to give orders, and age group players using conchs to give orders.
Undoubtedly, the boat hopes to become the "golden business card" of Shanghai city. Shanghai has a deep relationship with rowing. The first rowing competition held in China and the first rowing association have their roots in Shanghai. Shanghai has a moderate geographical location in China, abundant water resources, and a climate suitable for rowing. In 2017, Shanghai and Shaoxing hosted the Kayak Marathon World Cup together. In 2018, Shanghai hosted the World Collegiate Rowing Championships, with 397 athletes and official representatives from 23 countries and regions participating; the 2021 World Rowing Championships were originally scheduled to be held in Shanghai. At present, many middle schools and international schools in Shanghai have rowing teams and rowing clubs.
Water sports, including kayaking and rowing, are the gold medalists of the Olympic Games. Tokyo 2020 has 16 and 14 gold medals in kayaking and rowing, respectively. After 2008, the Chinese rowing team won the women's quadruple sculls gold medal again at the Tokyo Olympics, of which Chen Yunxia and Zhang Ling were transported to the national team from Shanghai.
The 2021 Boat ride is dominated by an eight-person boat race with 46 teams participating. Wu Jining said: "The 46 eight-person boats on the boat this time are very large, which can be said to be the first in the country. Domestically, there have never been so many eight-person boats competing. Shanghai has the advantage of location, is an open city, and is a first-tier city, and it has special historical significance for getting on the boat. Holding a competition in Suzhou Creek, the mother river of Shanghai, has great potential significance and publicity effect. It is reported that 12 of the runners participating in the 2021 boat race have won Olympic medals.
Wu Jining said that at present, Shenyang, Dalian, Nanchang and other cities in China are also doing some rowing competitions, but the main work is promotion and popularization, and Shanghai should benchmark the international and do the work of leading and demonstrating.
The 46-boat race will take place over 2 days, the 4.2 km race on the first day and the 500 m race on the second day. If you don't have much concept of 4.2 kilometers, you can understand that it is one-tenth of the distance of the full marathon, crossing a total of 13 bridges, of which 4 bridges are three-arch bridges. On the 24th, the 500-meter city race set off at the same time, which was more competitive. Considering the curve of the river, for the sake of fairness, each boat is rowed once in 500 meters on each of the two tracks, and the ranking is cumulative with two results.
Good trend: the rise of the living forces of colleges and universities
Colleges and universities are currently a group of rowing in our country. Next week, the National Collegiate Rowing Championships will be held in Fenghua, Ningbo, to select the Chinese team for the Chengdu World University Games. In 2018 and 2019, Shangyu, Zhejiang Province, held the World Famous School Rowing Challenge.
Xu Yaping, a world champion in kayaking, retired from zhejiang university and started a kayaking class in September 2014, which was very popular. After that, she took a rowing class. Currently, she is the head coach of the Rowing Team of Zhejiang University. Last week, Xu Yaping, together with Olympic champion Meng Guanliang and Shi Yigong of Westlake University, participated in the Jiande Marathon as the front runners. In Jiande, she told the author that in Hangzhou's West Lake and Qiandao Lake, there are often people rowing rowing. The Zhejiang University Rowing Team was established in July 2017. Immediately after the leading event, she went to Qiandao Lake to prepare for the Collegiate Rowing Championship.
Kong Qingtao, director of the Sports Department of Shanghai Ocean University, also led the team to participate in the boat race this time. He said: "The 46 boats participating in the competition this time include both the top professional teams in China, as well as ordinary college students and various rowing club teams, which reflects that China's rowing sport has repeatedly achieved good results in the international arena, and the popularity has also been greatly improved." At the same time, the 4.2-kilometer track is well designed, allowing athletes to fully feel Shanghai's unique historical and cultural features and the rapid development of the city."
In fact, there are many historical relics on both sides of the Suzhou Creek. The Sixing Warehouse, the Shanghai General Post Office and the nearby Shanghai Bund complex are all national key cultural relics protection units. The rowing competition held in Suzhou Creek is actually the embodiment of the achievements of water quality control in Suzhou Creek, the embodiment of the transformation from industrial rust belt to life show belt. Kong Qingtao hopes that the Shanghai Rowing Open will become an international business card to show Shanghai's unique urban spirit.
Sun Jian, head coach of the rowing team of Shanghai Ocean University, said in an interview with the author: "Our team members are ordinary college students, because the senior students have to intern and graduate school, so the 10 team members who signed up are all junior students. They have a certain foundation, but the lineup is less than a month old and still needs to be run-in, with the goal of reaching the top 3 in the 500m city sprint. "There are 9 teams participating in the boating university group this time, and there are Sun Yat-sen University, Xi'an Jiaotong University and other universities in other provinces and cities.
The Shanghai Jiao Tong University Rowing Team was established in 2001. Han Wei, who will represent Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the 500-meter city sprint today, is a senior student, and he is currently guaranteeing graduate students with the first place in his major. He won the Men's Quadruple Sculls Championship at the Asian Junior Rowing Championships in 2016 and the World Rowing Championship in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province in 2019, and participated in many competitions, including the "Henry Cup" Royal Rowing Festival. For this competition, he conducted physical fitness and special training in advance. He said: "The Suzhou Creek has curves, and the competition has to go through several bridges, which is still challenging. Being able to represent the school and participate in the first Shanghai Rowing Open is very memorable for me. ”
Rowing is an ancient sport, the International Rowing Federation was founded in 1892, is one of the first international single sports organizations, at that time, the International Olympic Committee has not yet been established, the modern Olympic Games have not yet been held. As a new event, in the process of brand building, the boat also needs to work together from multiple parties, starting from the foundation and starting from the details.
About the Author:
Chen Guoqiang, male, is an associate professor at Shanghai University of Sport, a master supervisor, and a doctor of journalism and communication.
Visiting Scholar, School of Public Health, Indiana University,USA (2013-2014)
This paper is the result of the stage of the Shanghai Social Science Planning "Comprehensively Enhancing Shanghai's Urban Soft Power" special project "Strengthening the Ideological Basic Research of the Whole Society's Extensive Participation in the Construction of Urban Soft Power" (2021XSL032).
Column Editor-in-Chief: Chen Hua Text Editor: Chen Hua Title Image Source: Haishar
Source: Author: Chen Guoqiang