By Ahmed Wafi
GOMBAK: 20 April 2016: The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)s rowing team or more commonly known as the Marlins are to travel to Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for an indoor rowing competition that will take place on the weekend of 6 to 8 May.
Indoor rowing is a sports that take place on whats commonly known as the rowing machine but rowers and athletes refer to the machine as the ergometer or ergo for short. Four categories are open meaning that there are four gold medals up for grabs. The categories are 500m race, 1000m, 2000m and the grand event the 2000m relay race which will comprise four rowers.
There are two ergometers in IIUM so the training has been going on pretty well for the team of five that will travel to Melaka for the tournament.
The rowers have been dripping sweat in the gym and on the ergometers as well as in the swimming pool. Endurance and strength have to be at an all time high for the rowers to stand a chance of winning a gold. With the cancellation of the inter-varsity rowing tournament that was supposed to take place in mid-April, the Marlins will be looking for other sources of success this year. Rowers from all over Malaysia expressed frustration at the cancellation of the inter-varsity rowing tournament and so are looking forward for the UTeM indoor rowing open.
Coach Mohd Shahrol believes that this tournament is to prepare the rowers for the grand Varsity Boat Race (VBR) that will take place in October of this year.
The VBR is an international rowing and kayaking tournament that takes place annually in Putrajaya since 2001 and has attracted participation from many international universities including the University of New South Wales and the University of Colombo among others.***
Photo taken from millerrowing.tumblr.com