Unser jugendliches Mitglied Sultan Zeb Khawaja, der im Karachi Boat Club in Karachi, Pakistan seit mehreren Jahren erfolgreich Leistungssport betreibt, hat uns ein paar Zeilen geschrieben. Im Langtext erfahrt Ihr alles spannende und interessante über ihn, das Rudern in Pakistan, seine Pläne für die Zukunft und vieles mehr. Kenntnis der englischen Sprache vorausgesetzt . Ebenso warten spannende Bilder.

MY NAME IS SULTAN ZEB
and I live in the seaside town of Karachi in Pakistan. I am 17 years old and was both the captain of my O-level school (Bay View Academy) rowing team from 2011 to 2012 as well as a senior member of my new A-level school (The Lyceum) rowing team of which I am trying out to be captain of this year. I have one younger brother who shares my passion for rowing as well. I am currently a senior member of the Karachi Boat Club (Karachi's rowing club) and have won several medals in various regattas. Two years back I had the chance to row at the Hannoverscher Ruder-Club von 1880 e.V. with Baerbel Arnold and Christian Sperling and became a member of your club. I was astounded by how clean the water was there (the water in the creek at our club is pretty bad :-p).

I have progressed a lot more in my rowing from 2 years ago and hope to experience rowing at this club again with my better rowing skills now. I'm looking really forward to it. I plan on pursuing higher studies in Germany, focusing on Geography/environmental management as my main subject combined with rowing and music on the side. From 2014 to 2015 I plan on taking a gap year and study German in Germany so that I may become more skilled in the language, as well as perhaps undergo a musical program or environmental internship (again combined with rowing).

ROWING IN PAKISTAN
In Pakistan we have several regattas that take place every year from the international ones including the ASRA (Asian School Rowing Association) which we hosted last year to the main annual interschool regatta that is the main event of the Karachi Boat Club every year.

In the interschool regatta, about 15 to 20 schools of Karachi face each other every year in rowing and cups are awarded to schools according to different categories. These categories include the junior boy's and girl's trophy, the senior boys and girls trophy and the overall winner trophy called the Ikram Cup. While in my O-level school last year I managed to win 4 gold medals and lead my team to victory in the junior boy's trophy category of which we competed in.

This year with my A-level school I won another 4 gold medals and broke the student rowing record for 2000m on the ergo at my club, which was something I never thought I could achieve when I was young and chubby :-p.

Along with this my new team and I won the senior boys trophy this year, which was something we all worked really hard for.

When the Sri Lankan schools' rowing teams came to Karachi during this year's ASRA we had for the first time eights competitions of which we (Pakistan's Schools' Rowing team) won against Sri Lanka. It was an event that taught us a lot about rowing and how different international rowing levels are from Pakistan's current rowing standards.

It is my hope to see Pakistan's rowing standards progress even further and maybe one day be on par with international rowing standards, once we get more funding hopefully in the future. And this is also why I would like to see some of you to come and help train us here in Karachi maybe one day in the near future .

Currently I am training to participate in a rowing regatta in Colombo, Sri Lanka this year where I hope I will be able to win even more medals with my team and once again defend our titles against the Sri Lankans . This Pak-Sri Lankan rivalry in rowing will surely gain momentum in the coming years and become even more exciting and suspenseful.

FACILITIES AT THE KARACHI BOAT CLUB
At our club currently we have 6 ergo machines along with 2 eights, 3 quads, 4 fours, 4 doubles, 3 pairs (which can be converted into doubles) and about 6 singles. A new fleet of international level Wintech boats (ranging from singles to fours) from China have just arrived at our club, increasing the number of boats we now have at our club and having a positive effect on our rowing practice. Our club has 4 coaches which are available to train any rowers coming to the club, while the really dedicated schools with rowing programs have coaches hired specifically for their teams (as my O and A level schools do).

But everyone here knows that in the end it always comes down to one thing. The harder you train and the more dedicated you are, the better you become in rowing .
I really hope to see my wish of rowing in Pakistan progress further come true, and hope to see some of you one day come here to Karachi and help me in doing this .

All the best
Sultan