CHANGSHA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Milan Krasny had never tried dragon boat racing before he was appointed as the coach of Hong Kong's dragon boat racing team in 2013. But it makes no difference for the Czech.
Krasny, who was formerly a canoeing athlete, steered Team Hong Kong to finish sixth in the men's dragon boat competition of the Chinese National Games, which concluded Monday in Changde, a city in central China's Hunan province.
"If it is the World Championship, there is only one Chinese team, but here are many. Here we have to battle with more than a dozen provincial teams," Krasny said, "They are very professional and hard to beat."
Krasny worked in Thailand, Australia and Czech Republic as a canoeing coach, before moving to China's Hong Kong in 2013, where he got a short-term contact from the local team. Soon his contribution and achievement won him a long-term contact and this year is his third season.
Although dragon boat racing is a traditional Chinese sport, Krasny believes that he has smoothly made the transition to the sport from his earlier work with canoeing.
"Dragon boat is similar to canoe because you play along one side, while in kayak you play on either side. The technique is similar," he said. "Most of my players agree with my technique, and after I arrived, we beat some teams which they were always losing to. You can see that overall the team is improving."
Choy Chun Yin, captain of Hong Kong's male dragon boat team echoed his coach, saying they have improved a lot, winning a bronze medal in the 12th Asian Dragon Boat Championship.
"Milan teaches a very good technique, we have improved a lot in both strategies and strength," said Choy.
Dragon Boating was included in the program of the Chinese National Games for the first time this year. Krasny regarded it as great news for the development of this program.
"Dragon boating has a long history in China and been practiced for thousands of years. The first World Championship was held here in 1995. All those years, China was organizing and participating in worldwide games such as the World Cup," he said.
"Because Dragon boating is so traditional and so popular in China, it should have been included in the National Games long ago."
The best result for Hong Kong male team in the three-day competition turned to be sixth place. When summing up the journey, Krasny said they had a lot of new players who are young and inexperienced. Meanwhile, most of the athletes have full-time jobs and few of them can attend each training session, making it difficult for them to reach a final.
"As long as we are not the champions, there is room for us to improve. Even if we get the to the championship, others could still work harder than us. There is no end to the efforts I will make for the team," Krasny said.
