Iran women to rock the boat at Asian Games

On the glass-like waters of an artificial lake in the heart of Tehran, Iran is plotting its course to the top of one of the toughest of all endurance sports -- and women are very much part of the plan.

Dressed in headscarves and long smocks in line with Islamic dress rules, the Iranian women's rowing team gracefully propel their coxless four across the water on the second of four daily training sessions.

Rowing for women is something new in Iran -- this team has only been training for six months -- but what they lack in experience they make up for in hard training, natural talent and ambition.

"We are young, we have started the sport fresh, and we train four times a day. So we are constantly gaining experience and we have our aim set on the Olympics," said Mina Amini, 18, the women's team's tall captain.

"It was just six months ago we started rowing in Iran. I was excited as I like boats and was attracted as this is the first time this is happening in Iran," said Amini, from the northeastern city of Boujnourd.

These four women -- chosen from 300 hopefuls after a series of grueling physical and technical tests -- are aiming their boat at the Asian Games in Doha next month as their first big challenge.

"We will be realistic. We will try and be in the finals. We don't just want to talk, we want to achieve," said their half-Russian coach, Javid Sarabi.

"Harder, push harder," he yells at his charges as they pick up the stroke rate by his motor launch. "Press against the footstretcher! And together...!!"

The fact that Iranian women are seeking to compete at a high level in a physical sport like rowing is a sign of increasing readiness in the Islamic republic to accept female sportswomen in different disciplines.

After the Islamic revolution in 1979, it was impossible for women to compete in international sports competitions, where they would inevitably encounter men as judges and spectators.

However from the early 1990s women began to compete again, helped by a cautious relaxation of dress codes and championing of their cause by Faezeh Hashemi -- the daughter of then president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Initially, women began to enter more stationary sports where conservative dress codes could be maintained without problems -- such as shooting or archery.

But for Doha, Iran will be sending female athletes to a broad range of sports including rowing, kayaking, athletics, equestrian and taekwondo, as well as shooting and archery.

And for the rowing and kayak team at least, their ambitions are real and they are emphatically not going to Qatar just to make up the numbers and arouse the curiosity of foreign journalists.

"I should say that we are sending a very young and well physically prepared women's team. Certainly we are going there to get results. We see a bright future for our women's teams," said the head of Iran's canoeing and rowing federation Ahmad Donyamalli.

Of course the crew still obeys Iran's Islamic dress code and rows in tracksuit trousers, long-sleeved T shirts under a sleeveless apron that covers the waist and black headscarves, topped off with white baseball caps.

But while the crew do not wear the lycra all-in-one suits that are de-rigueur for racing in the West, the loose lightweight covering poses few problems for good rowing.

And Iran's attempts to compete with the North American, European, and Australasian giants of the rowing world are not to be scoffed at.

Donyamalli said some 600,000 dollars (470,000 euros) is being invested in equipment, mostly imported from China, and three foreign coaches have been hired. While the 2008 Beijing Olympics may be too soon for success, the aim is firmly set on London 2012.

The presence at all of a 2,000-metre rowing lake within Tehran's city limits is something of a surprise.

Part of the capital's gargantuan Azadi sports complex built by the former shah for the Asian Games in 1974, the waters are peaceful with a stunning view of the mountains, a bizarre relief from the urban chaos that lies beyond.

"This sport is just getting going in Iran. But there are great perspectives. In winter, the Thames (in London) can freeze over and you have to stop. Here in Iran, you can row all year round," said Sarabi.

"The Iranians have potential as athletes. Above all the food is good. It's organic and there is lots of fruit. People really think about their health.

"And they do not drink any alcohol, which is great," he said.

Iran has been training women in canoeing disciplines for a little longer than rowing -- some two to three years -- and is sending Sonya Nourizad, 23, and Elaheh Kharazmi, 20, to race in the two-person flat-water kayak in Doha.

"When I came I thought that the prospects are there. There were good conditions, good water and the good athletes. Just the achievement was not good. But now the distance has become narrower," said their German coach Lothar Schaefer.

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AFP 141213 GMT 11 06

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