12 Nations in one dragon boat
 

The Planckton team of the MPI CPfS, consisting of 12 nations, took part in the 20th Dresden Dragon Boat Festival.
 

A colorful potpourri of national flags adorned the jerseys of the Planckton team this year. It stood for the internationality of the team members - the 18 paddlers + one drummer from the MPI CPfS come from 12 countries. This fact was picked up by one of the speakers who commented on the entire races over the two days of the festival. During the team presentation for the first race of the "HighTec Cup Competition", he passed it on to the other teams and the spectators, who included numerous colleagues, friends and relatives of the team members.

The first race was exciting for the Planckton team - three dragon boats went head to head from the start 400 meters down the Elbe towards the finish line. But then, around 50 meters before the finish line, the Planckton team made a slight tactical error, which the two other teams took advantage of. Too bad, so the only hope was to be more successful in the intermediate run in order to make it to the final run and thus keep the chance of winning one of the three ice cream cakes for the final participants.

In a team meeting shortly before the intermediate run, the team members cheered each other on once again. Highly motivated, the team members got back into a boat to fight with the "losing teams" from the two preliminary races for a place in the final. And all three teams fought neck and neck again... In the end, it was once again a photo finish decision. Unfortunately to the disadvantage of the Planckton team. But as soon as they got out of the boat, it was clear that a Planckton team would be back at next year's Dragon Boat Festival. Highly motivated...