Kodaikanal: The duck ducks and the player scores a 'duck'. That is how simple this game is. Played on the chill waters of the Kodaikanal Lake every year during the summer festival in the last week of May, the ‘Duck Race’ tests the skill of participants in catching an evasive duck.
The Kodaikanal Boat and Rowing Club released the duck into the water with much fanfare and waving of the red flag. That sent five teams in punts racing to catch it. The time allotted for the team to catch the duck is 15 minutes.
Each team comprised two men rowers and a woman catcher. While the men steer the punt towards the duck, the woman, sprawled on the hull of the punt, puts her arms out to grab the neck of the duck. “I was thrilled when I managed to grab the duck which moved very fast in the lake,” said the winner R Rithika (18), a first-year fashion design student from SRM College, Chennai.
As Rithika emerged from the punt with the duck in her hand, there was a huge round of applause from the eager onlookers who watched the sport from the club auditorium. “When my hand was almost touching its neck, I feared that I was going to fall into the lake. But within a fraction of second my hold became firm and I was stable. It was magic,” she said laughing.
Sheik Adul and Hanif, the rowers of the winning team said they managed to catch the duck after just 2.13 minutes. “We had a tough time chasing it this year” said Sheik Abdul (28), a businessman from Chennai. Last time the two rowers along with Anjuma had won the competition.
“Though the sport involves a lot of fun, we have to be very careful while rowing the punts because there are five teams chasing the duck at a time,” said Dr Venkatapathy Raja, a participant from Coimbatore.
There is always the risk of the punts crashing into each other during the chase and participants could topple over into the water. “We need have lot of perseverance and mind and body coordination while steering the punts. And we also have to have proper coordination with the woman player whose entire focus would only be on the duck,” said V Karthick Venkat from Chennai.
“Participating in this sport also helps to develop close bonding among the members of the club who gather from various parts of the state for the festival,” said participants N Nadira and Thasheem.
