It was only last week (Jan 5-9) when the murky waters of Chinna Creek saw over 300 able-bodied boys and girls rowing their boats up and down the stream until their arms almost dropped off their shoulders. Still none would admit to being tired … they were having so much fun!

The annual Karachi Boat Club Interschool Rowing Regatta featured some 16 educational institutions, including Karachi Grammar School (KGS), Bay View Academy, Centre for Advanced Studies (CAS), Cordoba School, Habib Public School, Foundation Public School, Nixor College, The Lyceum, Bai Virbaiji Soparivala (BVS) Parsi High School , S.M. Science College, The International School, Fatima Jinnah Girls Govt. School and The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF). A special feature of the rowing regatta was to support TCF though generation of funds.

The event, now in its third year, is the brainchild of Arif Ikram, himself a rower since his school days and captain of boats at the KBC.

“Being lucky to have rowed since my school days in Karachi, I later went to study in the US, where I found rowing to be a big sport. Realising that it needed to grow at the school-level here, I, along with a couple of my rowing partners, set about to start the inter-school regatta,” said Arif.

It is through these regattas that KBC has developed a strong rowing culture and community amongst the youth while creating a platform for preparing local teams to compete on an international level. A large contingent of girls and boys rowers from here even participated in the International School Regatta held at Chennai, India, last year. Youth teams from Pakistan have also been sent to train and compete in Sri Lanka, Spain, the Czech Republic and the UK.

“Our aim is not really to just teach a sport to the children. It is also to use this sport to proceed further in life. Like one of kids got a full scholarship to the University of Notre Dame in the UK on the basis of his rowing accomplishments here,” he pointed out. “Then three of the kids are also coaching in three academic institutions here, namely, Nixor College, Bay View Academy and the Lyceum,” he added.

About the sport he elaborated, “It is basically a very well-coordinated, high endurance sport teaching you about leadership, team work, etc. By well-coordinated, I mean rowing together in a team where the contributing of everyone counts. You may feel tired but you have to carry on rowing to not let your partners down. It is also teaches about commitment, discipline, teamwork and how to work with other people for a single cause.”

About their fee structure, he explained, “Keeping in view that rowing and its equipment can be quite expensive for loners, we have come up with this system for schools through which we offer our services on a subsidised rate to their students. When a school registers with us and we offer our boats, ores, general equipment, coaching, etc., on Rs400 plus tax per student basis.”

Thus the number of schools participating in the regatta has seen a steady increase. From a 10-school feature in its first year (2009), it saw participation of some 14 local schools last year. And it 2011, there were 16 schools competing in the event including public schools such as those run by The Citizen’s Foundation (TCF) who sent a team of 22 from Machar Colony to take part in the regatta.

“The club arranged for us to train and practice for two months with Australian coaches prior to the competition, too. It has been a great experience for us though we couldn’t win anything this time. But we are coming back next year, too, so watch out,” said young Rasool Jan, a class seven student and captain of the TCF 16-boy team taking part in the regatta for the first time this year.

Another boy, Ali Nasir Rehmani, from the Habib Public School team boasted of more experience and accomplishments. Having bagged five gold medals in this year’s event, he thought nothing of it. “Our school was also among the six teams that went to India in July last year. We won a silver in fours and a bronze in doubles there,” he informed.

Girls are also active participants of the sport. Sama Khawaja, an A-Levels liberal arts student at the Lyceum, is the captain of her school girls’ team. The daughter of a champion rower, she got interested in the sport herself after watching her father represent the KBC team in India.

Then there is Zahra Currimbhoy, an O-Level student of Bay View Academy and the captain of her school team, who has also represented Pakistan in the Czech Republic competition in July last year.

Little Abdul Wali Mehta, a class four student at the Bay View Academy, meanwhile, pointed towards the tough physical training that goes with the rowing in order to keep one in shape. “I work out on the indoor rower or the erg machine everyday during competition in addition to the jumping jacks and push-ups,” he said.

Fram Hansotia, a ninth class student at the Karachi Grammar School, and a gold medallist in rowing and coxing, meanwhile pointed towards the not-so-great aspects of the sport, “Your boat can also capsize!”

But one of the regatta co-secretaries Annabelle Bilgaumi dismissed off that notion with, “Capsizing is not common. Still if your boat does capsize in these waters, well, you just come back and take a shower!”