Pakistan win 10 gold medals in inter school rowing

Country’s young rowers also won four silver medals and one bronze medal in Maldives

KARACHI:

Rowers from Pakistan won 10 gold medals, four silvers and one bronze medal at the 2nd Inter School Coastal Rowing Beach Sprint Regatta that concluded in Addu City, Maldives on Sunday, with stellar performances from the Karachi Boat Club (KBC) team.

The 12-member team included students trained for the event at the China Creek for several weeks with coach, according to the KBC press release.

The competition featured teams from Pakistan, Maldives and Thailand.

“The event was to have rowers from India, Sri Lanka and Palestine as well, but for some reason they couldn’t compete,” Pakistan Rowing Federation vice-President Malik Abdul Rahim Babai told The Express Tribune.

This was the first time that Pakistan competed in the coastal rowing beach sprint event, which is not very common for the rowers in Pakistan.

“The rowing in the sea is like going into the wild waters and it is not very common in Pakistan, but we sent the team and it did well,” said Babai.

The youngsters competed in the U15 single skull and double skull events, and U18 boys, girls and mixed categories.

Fatima Dawood won the gold medal in the U15 girls single skull event and Urooba Salahuddin took the silver medal, whereas together they dominated the double skull event in the U15 category with a gold medal.

In the girls’ U18 single event Iman Sheikh took the gold medal and she paired with Huriya Faisal later to grab the gold medal in the double skull event as well.

Meanwhile, Rayyan Imran and Shayan Aziz won gold and silver in the boys’ single skull event, respectively. Iman, along with Hamza Naveed, got the gold medal in the double skull together for Pakistan in the U15 category.

Amaan Asad bagged a silver medal in U16 boys single skull, while, Ensi Qiao dominated the U18 single skull event for a gold medal and paired with Amaan Asad to top the double skull event a well.

In the Mixed U18 event, Qiao and Faisal were the best at the double skull in the main results.

What is coastal rowing beach sprints?

The rowers need to sprint from the start line to their boats, row their coastal boat and navigate a course of predetermined length around marked buoys and back to the beach where they again disembark and sprint to the finish line.