Hiral Visani

"When I was a young girl, I saw some paddlers sailing in the Sabarmati River in an indigenous boat race, which influenced me to take part in watersports. And in 2014, I met Mr. Tom Joseph, member of the IDBF Competition & Technical Commission and told him that I was interested in watersports and boat racing. I was lucky that he accepted my request and asked me to get ready, as the Dragon Boat Federation of India (DBFI) was going to hold the 7th Dragon Boat Racing Championship (DBRC) in the Assam State - he gave me a chance to take part in the championship on the Maharashtra State Dragon Boat Team. The DBFI National Championship was my first experience taking part in such a hard competition, where 23 state teams were participating. Our team got second place, which made me want to enter the international arena of watersports!

Times flies - I have paddled for over 5 years. As time went by, I became the founder and General Secretary for the Gujarat State and an Executive Member of the Dragon Boat Federation of India (DBFI). DBFI authorities and especially lifetime president Mr. Surjit Singh Bajwa, Secretary General Mr. K.S. Regi and Technical Chair Mr. Tom Joseph drove me to push myself and eventually led to my honour of representing India twice at the 13th WDBRC in China (2017) and 14th WDBRC in Thailand (2019).

I am fortunate to say that dragon boat has played an enormous role in my life. My most memorable dragon boat story happened at the 14th IDBF World Dragon Boat Racing Championship 2019 in Pattaya, Thailand, when the DBFI nominated me for the Race Official interview process and I received the IRO (International Race Official) title. It was the fruitful result of my dragon boat sports journey from Paddler to Coach to finally IRO.”

[Hiral Visani (Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India), team leader of the Dragon Boat Federation of India (DBFI), paddler on Premier Indian national team.]

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