Asian School Indoor Rowing Championship to begin from Sept 4 in Kolkata

Briefing the media persons here about the mega  sporting event , veteran oarsman and founder of Bengal Water Sports-the organiser of this event ,Shakeel Ahmed  said, “Apart from 75,000 students from 100 schools ofWest Bengal,  more than one lakh and fifty thousand students from other states of the country including  Assam, Bihar , Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab  will take part in this meet. “

"Our aim is to reach the very grass roots level by conducting the preliminary rounds in different districts”, Shakeel said adding that “a separate competition would also be held  for the specially abled children  along with this meet “ .

Giving details  of the competition  Shakeel Ahmed, who earlier won many international medals for the country, said,  “It would be held for three age groups -  under 12 , under 15 and under 18 years  -bothfor boys and girls.  After intra-school competition  18 students -  9boys and 9 girls -  would be selected from each school  who will then compete in district and thereafter in  state level championships"

All the state level, winners, along with competitors from other countries, will join the grand finale to be held at an indoor stadium in the city on Dec 2 next.

“FISA,  World Rowing Body, has recognized this event and is likely to send  a representative to observe this championship,” Shakeel said.

(Reporting by Manik Banerjee)