(Pervez Bari): Hosts Madhya Pradesh won two gold medals, Kerala a silver and a bronze, Uttarkhand a silver while Andaman & Nicobar a bronze medal on the opening day in the 24th National Kayaking & Canoeing Sprint Championships which got here at the Lower lake on Wednesday.
Madhya Pradesh won the first gold in 1,000 K-4 event and the second in C-4 junior boys’ category. In of women when the foursome of Nanao Devi, Lenjengambi, Sonia Rana & Sonia Devi excelled to grab the medal with a timing of 4:06.42 minutes. Kerala quartet of Shilpamor, Shalu Prakash, Justimol & Nitya garnered silver medal as they timed 4:16.53 minutes while Andaman & Nicobar’s team of Sandhya Kispota, Mamta Tirky, Pushpam & Neelam Madhuri with a timing of 4:26.39 minutes finished third to get bronze medal.
The hosts won the second gold in C-4 junior men’s category when quartet of Charan Singh, Ravi, Arjun and Ramendra laid their hands on the medal clocking 4:01.00 minutes. Uttarkhand’s team comprising of Kishore Gurang, Narendra Lama, Yogesh Thapar & Gaurav Tomar with a timing of 4:06.4 minutes bagged silver and Kerala’s Hari Krishnan, Akhil Saboo, Shivshankar & Adarsh completed the race in 4:16.9 minutes to win bronze medal.
The six-day national water sports events namely (a) 24th National Canoeing Sprint Championships for men, women, junior men & women and sub-junior boys & junior girls; (b) 2nd National Canoe Slalom (still water) Championships for men & women; (c) 2nd National Canoe Marathon Championships for men, women; (d) 2nd National Canoe Polo Championships for men & women are being organised from January 15 to 20.
These sports events are being organised under the aegis of Bhopal-based Madhya Pradesh Kayaking & Canoeing Association, (MPKCA), in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh Sports & Youth Welfare Department, Madhya Pradesh Police, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and Bhopal Municipal Corporation.
Meanwhile, earlier Madhya Pradesh Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Mrs. Yashodhara Raje Scindia inaugurated the championship in the morning. As many as 986 players are participating in the competition which will conclude on January 20. President of Indian Kayaking-Canoeing Federation G.S. Ragunathan was specially present on the occasion.
Congratulating the Sports Department, Minister for Sports and Youth Welfare Mrs. Scindia expressed pleasure that this competition is being held successfully on such a large scale. She advised players to set their targets at international level and the state government will extend every possible cooperation to them in achieving it. She announced that Bhopal water sports centre will do away with manual process and be equipped with an automatic start system for the races of kayaking, canoeing, rowing and dragon boats. This automatic start system would boost the chances of Indian hopeful sportspersons to win medals in Olympics, Asiad and other international events.
She also assured that the carbon boats and other important equipment needed for betterment of water sports would be provided which would cost around Rs.1.5 crore.
The Sports Minister also released balloons while inaugurating the competition formally. On the occasion, inaugural match of canoe-polo was played between Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
President of Madhya Pradesh Kayaking & Canoeing Association, (MPKCA), D.K. Arya told this correspondent that automatic start system comprises of cameras, automatic gate, electronic scoreboards and video recorders. The cameras are fitted in every lane where participants starts their race. Besides, video recording helps in keeping a tab on each act of the participants and also record the. timings. He said that in manually starting races organisers have cumbersome task to take care of each and everything as a single mistake may mar the chances of a participant, he added.
Former President of Indian Kayaking-Canoeing Federation Raja Kamal Singh, Secretary of Madhya Pradesh Olympic Federation Digvijay Singh, Secretary of Indian Kayaking-Canoeing Federation Mr. Balbir Singh Kushwaha, and large number of sports lovers were also present on the occasion as special guests. (pervezbari@eth.net)