GUIYANG, China, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nankai University and Zunyi Medical University of China won the gold medals respectively in men's 500-meter and the mixed 500m dragon boat races on Saturday, the opening day of the 2019 World University Dragon Boat Invitational Race held in Guiyang, Guizhou province of China.

The National University of Singapore won the gold in women's 500m race.

The two-day tournament has attracted 368 athletes from 23 universities, including Peking University, Tsinghua University, Stanford University and National University of Singapore.

Howard Chen, president of the International Collegiate Dragon Boat Federation, made a speech at the opening ceremony, saying that it was the first time the tourney has brought university dragon boat paddlers from five continents together this year and the sport with a long history of more than 2,000 years will promote the exchange of eastern and western cultures and also foster friendship and trust among the athletes.

"This competition has established a platform for us university students to communicate with each other and to better understand each other," Osanna Drake from Stanford University said.

The second-day competitions will see athletes compete in the men's and women's 200m races as well as the mixed 2,000m.