Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], August 20 (ANI): The greatest nationwide athletes within the nation will vie for the 24 gold medals at stake within the inaugural Khelo India Water Sports Festival (KIWSF) to be held on the iconic Dal Lake in Srinagar. The three-day occasion will see greater than 400 compete for the medal occasions, rowing, canoeing and kayaking.
The Khelo India Water Sports Festival 2025 would be the first consolidated Open-age class championships the place all 14 kayaking and canoeing occasions and the ten rowing occasions are Olympic occasions. To add to the glamour of the Water Games, there can be three demonstration occasions – water snowboarding, shikhara boat spring and dragon boat race, in line with a press launch from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.
The KIWSF will see 36 states and Union Territories in motion. Among them, all eyes can be on athletes from Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Kerala.
‘Since Services is not going to participate in these Games as a crew, it is going to be good to see how the states compete and carry out. The course has been ready preserving all worldwide specs in thoughts, and we’re all set to go,’ mentioned competitors supervisor Bilquis Mir, a former World Cupper canoeist and an Olympic decide, as per the discharge.
The Khelo India Water Sports Festival is a brand new addition to the Khelo India calendar. In 2025, two new occasions have been added. The Khelo India Beach Games passed off in Diu in May. As per the Khelo Bharat Niti, each the Water Games and Beach Games are aimed toward selling sports activities and attracting tourism.
For kayaking and canoeing, the final nationals held at Tehri (Uttarakhand) in November have been used as a qualifier. The prime 15 in singles and doubles, and the highest eight fours, can be collaborating in KIWSF. For rowing, the highest eight from the nationals held in Bhopal in March this yr will participate.
There can be a global flavour as effectively. Arjun Lal Jat, an Army rower who will characterize Delhi, can be one of many essential sights. Jat, 28, has taken half within the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and gained silver within the light-weight double sculls on the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou.
The Water Games will see nearly equal illustration from women and men. Of the 409 athletes competing for medals, 202 can be feminine. Madhya Pradesh (44), Haryana (37), Odisha (34) and Kerala (33) can have the most important contingent at KIWSF 2025. Gujarat, Puducherry and West Bengal can have the smallest groups.
Three gold medals – all in kayaking and canoeing — can be selected Day 1 on Thursday. All 10 rowing finals are slotted on the ultimate day on August 3. The opening ceremony, anticipated to be attended by the Union Minister of State Srimati Raksha Khadse, together with different dignitaries of Jammu and Kashmir, can be held on Thursday night.
This water sports activities carnival would be the second Khelo India occasion in Jammu and Kashmir after the Khelo India Winter Games held in Gulmarg. Launched in 2017-18, Khelo India is a mission to advertise sports activities tradition on the grassroots degree and in addition aimed toward organised expertise identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure growth. (ANI)