Sprint and drama at India's National Games

by Debora Feutren

Three of India's top rowers were seriously injured following a bus accident during the 33rd Indian National Games last week.

The athletes, who were competing for the Armed Forces & Services Sports Control Board (SSCB), were on their way back to the Games Village after a training session when their bus hit a road divider and fell into a ditch.

Despite their injuries, members of the team managed to lift the bus to extract Gursher Singh, the most seriously injured rower. Gursher was later flown to an Army Hospital in Delhi for reconstructive surgery on his face and right arm.

"He had the potential to become a future international medal winner," says C.P. Singh Deo, Secretary General of the Rowing Federation of India. "I managed to speak to him while he was in the intensive care unit and was impressed by his confidence and positive attitude. He is a fighter."

Anil Kumar, a sculler who placed 5th at last year's Asian Games, and Haridev Kadyan a medallist at the 2005 Asian Rowing Championships, are suffering from serious head injuries. Guwahati City Hospital discharged other members of the team after administering treatment for moderate to severe bruises.

The SSCB squad was among the seventeen teams (16 regional teams and one army squad) competing at the Indian National Games from 8 to 18 February in the north-eastern state of Assam.

Despite this tragic accident, the regatta proceeded smoothly and although each crew of the SSCB team lost at least one rower due to injury they still managed to win several medals thanks to substitute rowers.

The rowing competition was held on an artificial regatta course next to a wetland that had been prepared especially for the Games. "It was part of an ecosystem which was currently being desalted," explains C.P. Singh Deo. "The course could have been completed without much expense as it was part of a government project." But due to "bureaucratic delays inherent in a democracy", the organising committee managed to only clear a stretch of 1,000 metres, which according to C.P. Singh Deo "was acceptable in the interest of propagating rowing in the North East."

At India's National Games, rowing races are held either over 2,000 metres or over a sprint distance of 500 metres. This year, due to the length of the course, only 800-metre or 500-metre sprint races were held. "Sprints have become very popular with the spectators and the media," says C.P. Singh Deo. "Racing is fast and furious and generates a great competitive spirit among the teams."

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