Kudos to our Rowers

In this cricket crazy country, people often neglect or forget that there are other sports in India, where atheletes have achieved a lot more than our stupid "CRICKETERS". To name a few, let us take the example of SQUASH, where our Chennai girl Joshna Chinnappa has won numerous medals for our country; Chess, where our own VISHY(Viswanathan Anand) made our country proud by winning the World Chess Championship just some months ago, and tennis, where Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have consistenly been winning medals in doubles and mixed double events(Although they played with different partners, the trophies still count). There are many more examples, it is a pity that we fail to encourage other sports and often discourage aspiring atheletes.

The best example is the recently held MADRAS-COLOMBO Regatta.
Well, for many of you who don't know what a Regatta is; it is a type of event held in a sport called ROWING. For rowing, please visit this link.

The Madras-Colombo Regatta is an international rowing race event held between India and Srilanka, (to be more precise, it is between the Madras Boat Club and the Colombo Boat Club). Our rowers won seven out of the eight prestigious events held in this regatta and have regained this trophy after 10 years.

You might wonder why i am saying this suddenly? My major concern was the media exposure to this type of events, the day after this event happened, i browsed throght several newspapers to find atleast a one-liner detail about this event, and guess what even great dailies like the HINDU and the INDIAN EXPRESS didn't cover this event nor did they include any news, not even a one-liner. Now, lemme ask you people a question, is this Regatta not even worth a mention? When small clubs like Jolly Rovers, Mambalam Mosquitoes and even corporate teams have their scores mentioned in dailies? Then why this partiality. Yeah! This is just an event concerning two countries, but by encouraging these rowers, do we lose anything???

Anyways, have a look at the photos!!!


Madras Boat Club Fours Team after their victory over the Colombo Fours team. (You can spot the MRTS bridge in the background.)


The Madras Fours team rows to the starting point of the race; the starting point is the Kotturpuram bridge.
Team: Stroke- Rahul Baliga, 3-Charles Amolarpavaraj, 2-Sathish, Bow-James

The Race is on: Madras Boat Club Fours on the way to victory.


The Victorious Team with their oars: Starting from left: Rahul Baliga(National Champion in Sculling), Charles Amolarpavaraj, Cox(Don't know her name), Sathish, and James,(He happens to be the formal national champion and also the coach of the Madras Boat Club).


An EIGHTS boat on trial: The boat comprises of eight rowers and one cox(Non-rowing member and captain of the boat).


The Eights boat again: That is one hell of a boat to row!


The Double sculls team of Madras Boat Club.


Rowers relaxing after the race.


A Race begins???


Rahul Baliga, winners of the sculls event. He is the current national champion in Sculling and had won the gold in the recently held sculling events breaking the national record.


The Winning Pairs team of Madras Club: Rohit Ravindra and Tushar Bansal. These guys have won many trophies in the pairs events.


A woman sculler.


The Colombo Ladies Fours team