By IANS
Alappuzha (Kerala) : A nine-member team of women from Dubai will compete in the 55th Nehru Trophy Boat Race at the Punnamada lake here Saturday.
Julie Amer, a Briton, is leading the team that includes two of her compatriots, a woman from New Zealand, another from Australia and four Indians.
“We won it last time and we expect to win this time too,” Amer told IANS. The team arrived Sunday.
In 2006, Amer led a group of eight foreign women who teamed up with 25 local women to win the boat race. The snake boats used for the race are rowed by a minimum of 30 people.
K.S. Vikraman of Jayshree Travels, who has brought the team from Dubai, said that Amer’s team participated in the Thekkinodi women’s section of the boat race last year and would do the same in 2007.
“Last year, Amer’s team beat two other teams to win the 750-metre-long race and it was a keenly contested race. This time Amer and her team would join 26 other women from here who have registered under the name Vembanad Lake Women’s Boat Club,” Vikraman said.
Amer said: “Since we won last year, I am sure the teams from here will give us a tough time. But we are determined. And once we get into the lake Tuesday, our spirits would certainly soar.”
The Nehru Trophy Boat Race commemorates former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s visit to the state in 1952 when a pageantry of boats accompanied him on his trip from Kottayam to Alappuzha.
The first race was conducted impromptu at that time in his honour. Nehru, thrilled by the performance of the oarsmen, jumped into a snake boat disregarding security arrangements and protocol. The boat proceeded to the jetty with him on board.
On returning to Delhi, Nehru donated a silver trophy to the oarsmen. It is a replica of a snake boat placed on a wooden abacus, with an inscription and his signature.