THE International Dragon Boat Races - one of Hong Kong's biggest tourist attractions - degenerated into violence yesterday with a land and sea battle between the runners-up in the men's final.
Families who had gone for a day at the races looked on in horror as heavily-muscled oarsmen from the Shunde team, which had dominated the event until a few years ago, threw their paddles at arch rivals Nanhai. right in front of the VIP grandstand.
As second-placed Nanhai went on shore, third-placed Shunde landed after them and chased them through the crowd throwing more paddles and bottles of mineral water.
One Shunde racer wielding a paddle hit a Nanhai team member on the shoulder. The fighting stopped only when police with truncheons got between the two Guangdong teams.
The Shunde group and police then squared off, until the dragon boat racers backed down and were sent back to their hotel under police escort.
To avoid further trouble, Nanhai were asked by police to stay away from last night's gala dinner for the race teams.
Tension was high among the Chinese teams as they prepared for the start of the races. They had trained every day for months for about 21/2 minutes of explosive energy.