The Payipad chundan, rowed by the Sangham Kanneti, Karunagapally, lifted the Elemecs Trophy in the inaugural edition of the Kayamkulam Boat Race, held on the Kayamkulam Lake here on Saturday.
The final race of the event, which had more than four photo-finish contests in the preliminary stages, was an extremely close one as well, with the judges taking at least 20 minutes and several television replays to decide the winner. The Sree Ganeshan chundan, rowed by the Kavalam Karumadikuttan Boat Club, Kavalam, came second while the Karichal chundan, rowed by the Jesus Boat Club, Kollam, came third.
In the other categories, the Devas boat of the Alappuzha Town South Women's Boat Club won the Thekkenodi women's category while the Ambalakadavan boat won the Veppu A grade category. The Punnathra Purakal boat won the Veppu B grade category while the Kurupuparamban boat won the Churulan category.
Earlier, inaugurating the event, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the new generation was not familiar with the culture of water transport and life that had a lot to do with rivers and water, which was why many did not know swimming and in turn, leading to an increasing number of accidents.
The government had decided to include swimming in the State school syllabus while on the other hand, efforts were on to regain the past glory of the water transport system in the State. A Maritime Institute and a proposed Maritime Board were also part of these efforts, he said.
C.K. Sadashivan, MLA, whose concept the entire boat race was, Water Resources Minister N.K. Premachandran, K.C. Venugopal, MP, chief sponsor K.D. Gopalakrishnan, managing director of Elemecs Group, too were present.
