MORE than £11,000 was raised for nine different charities at the 2012 Chester Dragon Boat Festival.

Some 200 competitors from different charities competed in the annual event, held on Sunday at the River Dee, including representatives from Deeside Dragons, Miles of Smiles and the Barchester Buccaneers.

Dragon Boating, which originated in China 2.000 years ago, involves crews of up to 17 people working together as a team in unison, paddling and drumming to get the boat down the course and over the finishing line as quickly as possible.

Racing over a distance of about 250 metres, each team competed in four timed races during the day, which gave the teams time to work with the instructors and use dragon boating to develop team building and team training.

After all four qualifying races were completed, each team’s fastest single race time was used for qualification in the Grand Final, which was a final race between the three fastest teams on the day.

But it was Chronicle-founded charity Miles of Smiles which was crowned champion of the day, and the team was presented with a trophy by Marie Curie nurse Judith Barton.

John Jennings, captain of Miles for Smiles, said: “It was a brilliant day and it was great to raise as much money as we did.”

All proceeds from the day will now be divided between charities including Alzheimer’s Society, the Hospice of the Good Shepherd and Marie Curie Cancer Care, among others.