The fourth Jakarta Dragon Boat Festival (JDBF) was held on Saturday 13 th August 2022 at Ancol Beach City, Taman Impian Jaya Ancol, North Jakarta.
The JDBF is an annual dragon boat championship held since 2017 thanks to the cooperation of Klub Dayung Bahtera and Jakarta Paddle Club (JPC) under the auspices of PODSI (Indonesia Rowing Association) DKI Jakarta.
This year’s event welcomed 800 participants in 55 teams from all over Indonesia in the hopes of achieving a grand prize worth Rp135 million. They competed in a series of 250-m races within five categories: Premiere Open, Community Men, Community Women, Community Mixed, and Student Invitational Open.
Most participants have never joined any dragon boat event and similar competitions. To facilitate their enthusiasm, Klub Dayung Bahtera has held joint practice sessions every Saturday from May to early August to prepare them to compete in this JDBF.
This event’s Press Conference had the honour to be attended by:
- Mr. WS. Wirjawan, Chairman of PODSI DKI Jakarta
- Mrs Qurrotul A’yun, M.Pd., Project Director of The 4th Jakarta Dragon Boat Festival
Aside from being a water sports alternative in nature, JDBP is also an inclusive sports event that holds values of diversity, collaboration, mutual cooperation, and sportsmanship. Wirjawan said, “Jakarta Dragon Boat Festival can be a positive event to facilitate paddling communities, especially helping PODSI DKI to socialise dragon boat sports to the community and seeking talented and potential young athletes.”
Furthermore, according to A’yun, within the three preparation months, many participants had shown commendable progress despite only trying the dragon boat sport for the first time. This shows great interest and potential to promote the dragon boat sport in Indonesia.