Regatta welcomes international competitors to Chengdu

The Chengdu Open Rowing Regatta is held in Xinjin district, Chengdu, on Monday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Xinjin district in Chengdu, capital city of Sichuan province, gathered contestants from different countries at the Chengdu Open Rowing Regatta on Monday.

Chengdu Sport University won the university category's final, with the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China securing second place, and the University of Otago from New Zealand taking third place.

Fred Vavasour, a rower from the University of Otago, said, "I am very satisfied with the results of the competition. It was fortunate that the competition could be held in Xinjin, Chengdu. This is a great city, and I feel really good about being here. It's just a bit regretful that we didn't  compete on the Nanhe River."

Due to continuous rainfall in the upper reaches of the Nanhe River in Xinjin in Southwest China, the water level of the river rose. For the safety of the athletes, the competition was temporarily rescheduled to be held at the Sichuan provincial water sports management center.

The Chengdu Open Rowing Regatta is held in Xinjin district, Chengdu, on Monday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In the preliminaries of the university category, teams from Peking University, Imperial College London, University of Cambridge, Tongji University, Chengdu Sport University and University of Oxford formed one group, while the University of Otago, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, The University of Sydney, Sun Yat-sen University, Tsinghua University and a combined team from Harvard University and Yale University formed the other group.

After the completion of the two groups' races, the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China from Chengdu ranked first in the preliminaries. It advanced to the finals in Group A to compete for the championship with The University of Sydney, the University of Otago, Chengdu Sport University, Imperial College London and University of Cambridge.

The Chengdu Open Rowing Regatta is held in Xinjin district, Chengdu, on Monday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The men's quadruple sculls champion in the open category is a rowing team from Sichuan; the women's quadruple sculls champion in the open category is the team from Chengdu Vocational University of The Arts; the men's quadruple sculls champion in the professional category is the Chengdu Team, the women's quadruple sculls champion in the professional category is the Ya'an Team; the girls' quadruple sculls champion in the youth category is the team from a water sports school in Suining city, Sichuan, and the boys' quadruple sculls champion in the youth category is a team from Sichuan's Meishan city.

The 2024 Chengdu Open Rowing Regatta was much more than a simple event. Xinjin actively promoted the "travel following the competition" series of activities, integrating cultural, sports, and tourism resources during the competition. Various consumption scenes were created along both banks of the Nanhe River based on the event, which may advance the development of enterprises.

Except for the 2024 Chengdu Open Rowing Regatta, several other events were scheduled to take place in Xinjin throughout the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, including an important youth road cycling league.

As The World Games 2025 Chengdu draw near, sports in Chengdu are heating up. Xinjin is actively contributing to the development of a world sports event city through vibrant practice.