HUNDREDS of people gathered by the River Ouse to cheer on this year's Dragon Boat Racers.

The annual event is organised by York Rotary with volunteers from Martin House Hospice and Door 84 Youth Club, and saw 36 teams take to the water in the sunshine to race and raise money for the charities.

Alison Wragg from Martin House said: "We are delighted to be the Rotary chosen charity this year ."

Club president Mike Fieldsend said: "It's been a brilliant day and gone remarkably well.

"The great thing was that the winners were The Growlers, a team started by butcher Ged Bell from Dringhouses for the very first dragon boat race. He died of cancer, and his son has fairly consistently put in a team for the races, and they've won it on what they say is their last event. There was great excitement, a superb finish, with hardly half a second between the six finalists."

In addition to the costumed racing, there were stalls from local organisations and charities along the length of both banks of the Ouse, between Lendal and Scarborough Bridge.

York's civic party selected the Martin House team as best dressed, for their costumes as London Underground stations, and a full list of race winners and prizes is available at yorkrotary.co.uk/dragon-boat-challenge