By Zhou Zhaohui

On 26 June, after 3 hours and 23 minutes, Nantong canoeing players Gu Chengang and Luan Yanyan’s double boat which set out from Baishamen park at Haikou, Hainan, arrived at Hai’an harbour of Guangdong province successfully! The 1st attempt of Nantong players to conquer Qiongzhou Strait was successful.

Qiongzhou strait is the channel between Qiongzhou Island and Leizhou Peninsula. The narrowest part is only 18 km in terms of linear distance.

In total 7 players participated. The eldest is 51 years old and the youngest is only 25 years old. On 25 June morning, after they arrived at Haikou, they started adaptive training immediately. ‘At 6:15 am on 26 June, we rowed 6 canoes (one of them is a double boat), set out from a beach near Baishamen park, Haikou, Hainan province; at 9:38 am, the 1st canoe arrived at the beach near Hai’an harbour, Xuwen county, Zhanjiang, Guangdong province. Apart from Gu Chengang and Luan Yanyan, Qianfeng and Bao Simeng also crossed the strait successfully. The other three people had to give up because when they reached two thirds of the strait, the wind and current were too powerful.