Year of the dragon

Sports | A small but competitive group of Americans falls in love with the ancient Chinese sport of dragon boat racing | Priya Abraham

LUNG-STRETCHING: Deep Purple readies for a race

PRINCETON, N.J. — Two days before the big race, a long, blade-like canoe paused at sunset on the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. Twenty paddlers crouched in tight pairs steadied the craft, called a dragon boat, awaiting instructions from their steersman.

"Attention!" barked Kathy Wright, a retired Navy reserves senior chief. The paddles dunked in the water.

"GO!"

The team lunged ahead, arms straight and fastened to the paddles. In, out, with chesty, synchronized strokes, bodies rolling forward in rhythm. "Twenty . . . Thirty," called Wright, clocking the passing seconds.

"BRING . . . IT . . . HOME!"

At Wright's final clarion call, the paddlers plunged longer and deeper, stopping in gasping groans as the 200-meter practice run ended. Behind the boat, the dusky silhouette of a Navy Yard ship loomed against a golden-salmon sky. "Everybody look at the sunset," Wright said, relenting. "You get two minutes to look at the sunset."