Maqbool — the rowed less travelled

42-year-old rower wins hearts and gold with unique story

KARACHI: He is 42 years old. Or as he sees himself... 42 years young.

Maqbool Ali, the senior-most member of Pakistan's rowing team, is a quadragenarian who should've been thinking of retiring right about now.

But Maqbool — despite deciding that rowing is the love of his life at age 17 — is only just getting started.

His tragedy is being inexplicable shelved for more than a decade and deprived of his peak career years by the Pakistan Rowing Federation (PRF), which could and should be counted as a crime considering that he was discarded right after winning gold at the Asian Indoor Rowing championship in 2003.

"The last medal I won for Pakistan was in 2003 in Japan," he recalls in an interview with The Express Tribune. "It was sadly also the last time the federation let me participate. They just didn't see me after that. They just forgot about me."

Where he could've easily quit the sport to become rowing’s forgotten man, Maqbool refused to accept that his crowning moment was also his swansong.

Over the next decade, Maqbool kept on training on his own and with his department, hoping there would come a time when those who discarded him would realise their mistake. That standoff continued for well over a decade.

A laborious sport, rowing demands a lot from its practitioners physically. But Maqbool's task was even harder as he also had to remain mentally strong while coping with the expenses of a sport that hits just as hard on the wallet as it does on the body.

"Rowing isn't easy, it is an expensive sport, a very time-consuming passion, which is why everyone doesn't stick to it on a professional level," said Maqbool. "I had to make sure that in these 14 years that I didn’t miss out on any practice or work out and stayed as fit as I could. [Even now], I work out and row for at least five hours a day at the Rawal Dam with my department. I make sure that I stay on my toes, and I even coach younger rowers so that I don't fall back in any way. Fitness is the key to everything."

His persistence and faith finally paid off when one fine morning the forgotten hero was recalled back into the squad.

While a lot had changed during his freeze-out, one thing has remained just the same: his enthusiasm and passion for the sport.

Given a lifeline so late in his career, Maqbool enters every race with the infectious energy of a 24-year-old rather than a weary veteran robbed of his prime.

It is that gusto that is largely credited for the rowing team's recent triumph in the mixed fours event at the Asian Indoor Rowing Championships in Malaysia.

That Pakistan’s 14-year drought for gold ended only after Maqbool returned to the side is no coincidence. It is destiny, he says.

"It has been a long wait for me," said Maqbool. "When I was recalled after more than a decade out, I couldn't believe at first, but [I told myself] this was my chance. After all these years my name came up on the scoreboard, I wore Pakistan's colours and represented my country. This has been something that kept me going for all these years. People now know that I can still row."

Now that he has proven himself and become a national hero, Maqbool has urged more of his countrymen to pursue rowing.

"In other countries rowing is a major sport, kids can even get admissions in universities through this. In Pakistan more work is needed to promote the sport among the younger lot," said Maqbool.

More can indeed be done to promote rowing as a sport, but if rowers all over the country are looking for an idol, then they need not look further than this incredible 42-year-old man, who won’t be forgotten for a second time in a hurry.