A boost for rowing in the Maldives

In the Maldives, the temperature never goes below 26oC and hundreds of thousands of tourists flock there each year for their little piece of paradise in one of the many luxury resorts that adorn the travel pages of magazines. The population of 350,000 is distributed over 150 of the 1100 Islands which make up a land mass of 300 square km. The country is 99 per cent water and split into 26 naturally occurring atolls separated by mostly calm stretches of sea. With facts like these, you might be wondering why there is a need to set up a rowing project. In fact rowing has played an integral role in the nation’s history.

Up until the introduction of the outboard engine, one of the only means to navigate between islands was to row. Addu City, for example, has a rich rowing history.  In 1941 the Gan area of Addu Atoll was transformed into a British RAF base which remained in service until 1976. Rowing races often took place between the servicemen and locals.

Throughout the Maldives the tradition of rowing was particularly embraced by the Maldivian women, perhaps even more than in Great Britain and other nations that have long rowing histories.  

The Rowing Association Maldives became the 131st member of FISA, the World Rowing Federation, in 2010 under the impetus of FISA’s Rowing For All commission chair Guin Batten. Two years later a rowing programme in Addu City was started.  Natasha Howard, a British Olympian, kick-started the project during her seven-month stay, where she organised two atoll-wide tournaments and oversaw two athletes, a boy and a girl, compete at the 2012 Asian Olympic Qualification Regatta in Chungju,  Korea.

Brenda Balenga, an American coach, then spent three months at the end of 2012 continuing Howard’s work. With their leadership, rowing established itself as a community project and it took part in community activities such as beach clean-ups. Once Balenga left, there was nobody to replace her.

Eight months later, in October 2013, I arrived to get the project started again. Coming straight from living in central London and rowing on the Tideway, there were understandably some adjustments that I had to make. Early challenges included attracting students, fixing boats damaged by disuse and establishing my goals for the club. Progress was slow at first. Everybody here runs on “Maldivian Time” and if it rains, it rains hard enough that people don’t leave the house. Time slips away from you when you are here and life is generally dictated by the natural rhythm of the sun or the tides. We were also limited by resources, which amount to nine functional rowing seats.

Despite these few teething problems one thing that remained entirely constant was the children’s enthusiasm for the sport. For most of the kids, the two hour rowing session each afternoon was an important part of their day. I coached over 40 students and without exception, each one of them would tell me how much they enjoyed the sport and they never grumbled at the thought of longer sessions.

I organised the Addu City Festival of Rowing which attracted many locals who weren’t involved in rowing. The setting was an idyllic beachfront, typical of thousands throughout the country, with the course developed using available resources (300m and buoys made out of cooking oil containers). The rowers displayed an intense sense of competition and at the end of the day the overwhelming sentiment was of joy, excitement and satisfaction in what was, for many children, their first-ever experience in competitive sport.

The Rowing Association Maldives now has another goal: the Hong Kong Coastal Championships. We plan to take a boat to this competition and we hope it will show the students and the local community the possibilities and opportunities rowing presents. For those going it will be their first international competition and for most it will be the first time they have left their country.

Ultimately, the aim for the project is to have rowing run by the local people. There is yet to be a certified Maldivian coach and this will be the next step to achieving this vision. Rowing tourism is also an option as we are looking for ways to fund people participating who don’t necessarily have the means to financially support it themselves.
Either way, rowing has a future in the Maldives.”

James Gunn is a rowing coach in the Maldives who is currently continuing the rowing project started by Guin Batten in 2010.