Duck Race tests ‘catching skill’ on Kodaikanal lake

The duck ducks and the player scores a “duck”. That is how simple this game is. Played in 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 releases the duck in the water with much fanfare and waving of the red flag. That sends five teams in punts racing to catch it. The time allotted for the team to catch the duck is 15 minutes. Each team has two male rowers and a female 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 designing 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.

Suggestion box The duck race was started by the British in Kodaikanal, says Bhavani Shankar, secretary of the Kodaikanal Boat and Rowing Club. The duck race has been conducted every year since the British established the boat club at Kodaikanal in 1890, he said. “They started this sport for fun but it used to be an exclusive domain of the British. After independence, Indians have also been able to enjoy this sport,” he said.

To popularise the sport, the boat club has started conducting competitions on the water during the annual summer festival. “A duck was selected for the race because it is very tough to catch in the water. If we go close to the duck in the water, it will fly to another place in the lake,” he said adding that the duck represents the boat club in the game.

As the sport gained popularity in the last 20 years, demands for participation also rose among club members. “Hence we organise it over two days and allow 20 members to participate,” Shankar said.

As it is tough to row a punt quickly, men rowers would take training before they register for the race, he added. Shankar claims the duck race is a unique sport organised only at Kodaikanal. “Nowhere in the world would you find such an event. Even in the US they conduct the sport in flowing water and that too with plastic ducks,” he said.