Rabindra Sarobar: A software professional, a student who has just cleared Class X and two policemen have won the only gold for Bengal in a national rowing tournament in Chennai.

The Interstate Challenger Sprint National Rowing Championships were held at Chennai’s Sri Ramachandra Water Sports Centre from June 4-10. 

The gold that came to the state was in the men’s fours category, where four rowers with an oar each comprise the crew. 
“We knew it would be a tight race. But it was tighter than what we had expected,” Sankalpa Saha, 24, who works with IBM, said. 

He teamed up with Pratik Gupta, a Class XI student of South Point, and two constables of the city police’s armed battalion, Tapas Jana, 25, and Ilias Islam, 29.

The Bengal team finished the 500m course in 1.23 minutes. Maharashtra finished second with 1.25 and Delhi with 1.28 settled for bronze.

“The race was neck and neck till the first 400m. We took the lead in the last 100m,” Saha, a South Point alumnus, told Metro on the lawns of Bengal Rowing Club, where the four train. 

Saha has been rowing for 11 years. He was hooked to rowing seeing a cousin. “Rowing was big in my school. The school regatta atmosphere was electrifying.”

Gupta said nothing had changed in school. “Rowing is still very popular.” 

He took up the oar a couple of years ago and is already a name to reckon with in the junior circuit. 

He said he shifted from basketball to rowing following a school senior’s advice. He won three golds in the Amateur Rowing Association of East regatta this January at the Calcutta Rowing Club.

If the challenge for Saha is to balance work and rowing, Gupta’s ultimate test is convincing his parents about skipping tuitions and school to prepare for tournaments. “It is tough when there are double practice sessions before big tournaments,” Gupta, who scored more than 82 per cent in his CBSE exams, said.

Tapas Jana and Ilias Islam, posted at the Alipore Bodyguard Lines, find early morning practice after night duty “exceptionally taxing”. 

“The IPL season was very hectic. We had applied for concessions but a staff crunch meant we could not be spared,” Jana, who is originally from East Midnapore’s Contai, said.

The two had picked up the oars after being posted in Calcutta.

“It would be well past 1am when we returned to the barracks. But we never missed the 5.30am practice,” said Islam, who is originally from Alipurduar.

The four spend more than three hours at the club daily from 5.30am. Apart from sessions on water, they run and undergo endurance and weight training at the gym. 

“Each of us has a lot on our hands during the day. But on the boat, we forget everything for a while,” Jana said.