Flag catcher flops into water as dragon boat head drops off
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/06/18
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
Head of boat starts to fall off. (Breaking News Commune image)
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A video posted on social media early this morning (June 18), shows the head of a dragon boat suddenly snap off, tossing the flag catcher riding it into the river, just seconds after taking third place in a dragon boat race in New Taipei City.
In the video, which was posted at 7:33 a.m. today on Breaking News Commune (爆料公社), the first and second place finishers can be seen making a mad dash to the finish line, with their flag catchers desperately lunging try to capture the banner in their lane before their rivals. Next, comes the boat in third place, with all of its crew furiously paddling to beat their rivals to the third place slot.
Normally, when a dragon boat is 20 meters within a flag, a designated flag catcher from the crew scrambles forward and leans on the dragon head to extend their body as far forward as possible to snatch the flag as quickly as they can.
In this case, when the boat got in range of the yellow flag in its lane, the flag catcher swiftly snatched the banner and casually tossed it in the air. However, the brave flag catcher barely has five seconds to celebrate his team’s achievement before the dragon head he is leaning on starts to buckle and completely snaps clean off the vessel. [FULL STORY]
