The Walton-Cute Singna Rowing Competition, providing a glimpse of the thousand year old tradition of the country, will be held at the ‘Kumri Bil’ of Kalihati upazila of Tangail on August 11, Sunday.
More than 1,500 hundred rowers, commonly known as ‘Mallas’, split into five categories, including one for the women, will be rowing for the supremacy in the two kilometers long water body. The men’s sections have four categories of 100 Mallas, 50 Mallas, 25 Mallas and 7 Mallas while women’s only have one section of 7 Mallas. The competition started back in 2008 and in the sixth edition of the event this time more than hundred festive looking boats specially made for rowing, locally known as ‘Nouka Baich’, will be speeding for glory on the blue waters.
Walton has stepped up with a purse of Tk100,000 for the organisers and they will also provide five LED TVs, five 21” colour TVs and five 14” colour TV’s for the winners of the five categories. Cute will provide the logistic support of the event. In a press conference held at the Bangabandhu National Stadium Mir Kaiser Sadik Sajib, the convener of the competition committee said the meet provides entertainment for about 200,000 people who gather at the bay of the water body. “The atmosphere takes a real festive mood and the thousand year tradition of the country is reflected in every second when the rowers hit the water with their paddle,” said Sajib.
AFM Iqbal bin Anwar Dawn, the additional director of the Walton, said they have been supporting the local sporting meets for a long time and has plans to promote the sport in Ashulia in the near future.
