Village Boat Club (right) defeated Viyapuram Chundan in the 10th President’s Trophy boat race at Ashtamudi Lake in Kollam on Saturday. | Photo credit: Suresh Kumar C
Despite finishing second in the President’s Trophy in the sixth and final round of the championship, Pallathuruthy Boat Club (PBC) topped the overall table and retained the Champions Boat League title for the fourth time in a row.
PBC won a cash prize of Rs 25 lakh and a trophy by racing the Karichal snake boat in the Ashtamudi lake race.
Village Boat Club (VBC) finished first and Nirnam Boat Club third in Saturday’s race in the nine-team championship organized by Kerala Tourism.
VBC finished in 3.53:85 minutes, PBC in 3.55:14 minutes and Niranam Boat Club (Rowing Niranam Snake Boat) in 3.55:64 minutes.
All three boats put in a thrilling performance, while VBC cruised with a steady edge and never allowed their two rivals to overtake. At no point did the VBC, rowing Veeyapuram, pop a photo-finish opportunity.
The PBC, fearing the possibility of losing the CBL title if they finish third, cried with all their might. The team felt threatened by Niranam who was ahead early in the finals. Towards the final lap, PBC staged a dramatic surge that enabled it to finish second — by a margin of just 50 microseconds.
In fact, it was just a microsecond that PBC won the previous races of the championship in Kainakkari, Karuvatta and Kayamkulam. Rivals VBC also won in Pandanad, but PBC held the overall lead as the team never dropped below second place.
Thus, adding nine more points from the Kollam run, PBC managed to clinch their fourth CBL title with 58 points overall, one point ahead of VBC. Niranam scored 48 points.
Mayor Prasanna Ernest, MP NK Premachandran and MLA M. Mukesh and M. Naushad jointly distributed the award. The first, second and third teams in the league game won Rs 5 lakh, 3 lakh and 1 lakh respectively.
Based on the overall performance in six races, the top team received Rs. 2.5 million, the runner-up received Rs. 1.5 million and the third team received Rs. 10 million. After each match, all participating teams received Rs 3 lakh and the owner of the snake boat received Rs 1 lakh as a bonus.
published – Dec 21, 2024 at 08:58 pm IST