Dal Lake turned into a competitive arena on Thursday as the inaugural Khelo India Water Sports Festival opened, drawing 409 athletes from 36 states and union territories to contest 24 gold medals across three days.
The festival will stage rowing, canoeing and kayaking as the principal medal events, with a trio of demonstration attractions — water-skiing, a shikhara-boat sprint and a dragon-boat race, added to the bill to boost spectacle and appeal.
“Since Services will not take part in these Games as a team, it will be good to see how the states compete and perform. The course has been prepared keeping all international specifications in mind and we are all set to go,” competition manager, Bilquis Mir, a former World Cupper canoeist and an Olympic judge, said.
KIWSF is the newest addition to the Khelo India calendar, coming on the heels of this year’s Beach Games in Diu and forming part of a wider sports-and-tourism push under the Khelo Bharat Niti. Organisers say the festival is intended to both unearth talent and showcase the region to visitors.
Also read: Manipur overall champs at Khelo India Beach Games
Selection to the water games was through recent national championships: for kayaking and canoeing the top finishers from the Tehri nationals qualified, while rowing berths were earned on the basis of results at the Bhopal nationals. The field is nearly gender-balanced, of the 409 competitors, 202 are women.
Several States have sent substantial contingents, with Madhya Pradesh (44), Haryana (37), Odisha (34) and Kerala (33) among the largest teams. Smaller squads arrived from Gujarat, Puducherry and West Bengal, reflecting a wide geographic spread.
The festival will also carry an international flavour: Arjun Lal Jat, an Army rower representing Delhi and an Olympian from Tokyo 2020 who won Asian Games silver in 2022, is among the marquee names expected to draw attention.
Officials said the course at Dal Lake meets international specifications and that event management has been calibrated to ensure fair competition and athlete safety. The KIWSF marks the second Khelo India event staged in Jammu and Kashmir this year, following the Winter Games in Gulmarg.
Follow us
