The racing competition, now in its 10th year, was being held Saturday and Sunday at Treasure Island, a former naval station in the middle of the bay between San Francisco and Oakland.

The annual event, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, was moved from San Francisco's Lake Merced to Treasure Island's Clipper Cove to accommodate a growing number of participants. An estimated 2,500 people in almost 100 boats representing various organizations were competing this year's races, organizers said.

Dragon boat racing traces its roots back more than 2,000 years to ancient China. According to legend, a respected Chinese scholar named Qu Yuan drowned himself in a river to protest government corruption. Fishermen paddled furiously up and down the river searching for him, thrashing the water with their oars to scare away hungry fish that might eat his body.

In the modern sport, 20 paddlers sit in ten rows of two in colorful, 500-pound boats with a dragon's head on the prow and a tail at the stern. Paddlers stroke to the beat of a drummer who sits in the stern as they race a 500-meter course.

While about 80 percent of the competition's participants are Asian, the sport is gaining popularity with people of all ages and nationalities.

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