Army personnel practice for an upcoming boat race in Kochi

Kochi, Aug 3 (ANI): Army personnel are practicing for an upcoming boat race competition to be held in Kochi.

The 59th edition of the internationally acclaimed annual, Nehru Trophy Snake Boat Race, to be held in the Alleppey's Punnamada Lake, will witness a 55 member army contingent taking part.

Army personnel belonging to the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) in Bangalore are undergoing rigorous practice sessions, along with local oarsmen of a local boat club in Alleppey.

Rama Prasad, chief of the UBC Kayanagiri Boat Club said the team is confident of creating a new record, as they were practicing rigorously for the upcoming competition.

"This year our Muttail Kainagiri snake boat will be rowing under the banner and leadership of UBC Kaynagiri Club, which is not just for winning but this time we are confident to create a new record. Last year when mediapersons had asked me if we would win, I had told them that this is a competition, winning or loosing cannot be judged at this point, but this year we are very much confident of putting a time record in the history of Nehru Trophy boat race," said Prasad.

The team, led by Subedar R. K. Pillai who is a native of Kerala, said that the army team was well versed with water and had undergone many related events during their training and sports courses.

"This engineers group in Army has already been trained in water, so we have a feel and relation with water. Now in this boat we have 55 men from over five states and all these men when would perform on 13th of this month, would definitely change the time taken to finish as compared to last year and this sport is going to be a big national or even international event," said Pillai.

The MEG consists of sportsmen from different states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttaranchal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.

There would be a total of 59 boats, including 19 'chundans' (snake boats) participating in the race this year. (ANI)