“Aqua Runners” from Schunk Bahn- und Industrietechnik – Winners of the Corporate Cup at the Third “Dragon-Boat Cup” 2006

“Team spirit and cohesion are what 20 employees of Schunk Bahn- und Industrietechnik GmbH (SBI) demonstrated as the winners of the Corporate Cup at the third “Dragon-Boat Cup” as part of the events of the Giessen Town Festival.
The “Aqua Runners” company team from SBI, which was competing for the first time, was founded for this dragon-boat tournament on the initiative of Markus Kreiling, Erdal Koc and Thorsten Hopp and not only managed to win the corporate-team competition, but also finished fourth in the overall competition as well as having the third best overall time in their boats from among 31 participating teams. A total of some 800 athletes took part in 27 races on a 280 meter stretch of the Lahn River, with the starting point at the Giessen Rowing Club Hassia 1906.
Participants included corporate teams, local clubs, associations and volunteer fire departments and even some teams from fitness centers and gyms.
Dragon boats, originally from China, are rather long canoe-like boats which portray stylized dragons through painting and/or carving work as well as decorative Chinese dragon heads and tails.
Dragon-boat racing nowadays belongs to the cyclical sports, which means that there is a repeated rhythm of identical and uniform movements which flow into each other. In addition to strength, successful paddling requires absolute unison and harmony. The smooth and flowing rhythm of the movements in such boats is facilitated by so-called drummers, for SBI Claudia Schaaf, daughter of Managing Director Stephan Schaaf, who picked up the paddling rhythm of the front two paddlers and provided a beat for the others to keep stroke. At the same time, Claudia Schaaf also motivated the paddlers by loudly calling out vocal encouragement. A coxswain was provided by the organizers for each boat, who steered the boat using a steering oar in the direction of the finish line. The SBI employees were especially happy about the participation of their managing director. The Schunksters, whose ages ranged from young apprentice to 55, practiced only three times prior to the regatta and defeated teams from such companies as Sparkasse Giessen, the Giessener Anzeiger Newspaper, Engel & Jung, Rinn, Elli Lilly and many more.
Other Schunk employees from Heuchelheim and Wettenberg cheered wildly for the “Aqua Runners” from the banks.
It was not only the winning of the corporate cup, but also the fun and “team feeling” that made the SBI squad want to continue next year. Practice for the planned participation of the “Aqua Runners” in four tournaments in Giessen, Marburg, Wiesbaden and on Lake Eder will begin in April, 2007. While the expenses for boat rental, jerseys, and race fees came out of the pockets of the “Aqua Runners” themselves in 2006, they will be financially sponsored by Management in the coming year.” (appeared in December 2006 issue of Schunk Report)

The SBI “Aqua Runners” 2007 are:
Richard Aechtner, Uwe Andes, Bettina Bremer, Robert Castellanos, Matthias Dort, Udo Dort, Stefan Fitzthum, Bodo Gerlach, Rumold Hahn, Thorsten Hopp, Alexander Knippel, Matthias Kraft, Markus Kreiling, Kurt Kröll, Günther Linker, Efkan Mehmet, Rainer Nuhn, Sven Palek, Karsten Rehbein, Teresa Rinn, Claudia Schaaf, Stefan Schaaf, Slava Schmunk, Peter Schneider, Thomas Skopko, Bernd Sommer, Helmut Strube and Günther Weimer.