International Canoe Federation (ICF) and International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) have come to joint agreement that the two organizations are to remain separate and distinct.
The Joint Agreement is a new relationship between the two paddle sports. It will be notified to the Internation Olympic Committee (IOC) and other international multi-sports organisations, as well as to both IDBF and ICF Members, the press, paddle sport magazines and on our respective web sites.
The IDBF is now the established independent International Federation for dragon boating. The ICF will now work with the IDBF towards IOC recognition for the sport and the IDBF.
In case you're wondering what all the fuss is about, the ICF started to expands its coverage to include dragon boat as one of their sports, although I'm not exactly sure whether or not the intent was to control dragon boat racing. The IDBF wanted to be recognized as the official organization to handle dragon boating. So you have two different organizations to represent dragon boat.
The Chinese Canoe Association has recently written to the ICF informing them that they cannot support the recently formed ICF Dragon Boat Racing Committee, as they and the Chinese government consider that Dragon Boat Racing is a separate paddle sport
Now with the joint agreement, the IDBF will continue to organize World Championships. The ICF is invited to take part in IDBF World Championships.
http://www.dragonboat.org.uk/idbf/icf_idbf_agreement.htm
