Sea rowing grows popular in Istanbul amid COVID-19 pandemic

At the shore of the Golden Horn, the primary inlet of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, a group of people did some warm-up exercises before jumping into two rowing boats and sailing in the sea of the biggest Turkish metropolitan, reported Xinhua.

"Stand by! And stroke together!" the two coaches in the rowing boats gave the order, as the boats glided over the still waters and slowly disappeared out of the view.

The shores of the Golden Horn, with an excellent view of Istanbul's historic peninsula, host four private rowing clubs and centers of several university rowing teams. During the past several months, the workloads of the clubs have almost tripled to meet the growing interest of the Istanbulites in outdoor sporting activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Firat Firat, a founder of the Halic Rowing Club, told Xinhua that his club saw up to a 60-percent increase in the number of applicants in the last couple of months alone.

"Istanbul's residents are looking for areas where they could exercise outside, release their stress, get a fresh breath, and at the same time feel safe amid the outbreak," Firat explained the business boom.

This sport, he said, grows increasingly popular, especially with professional groups, such as lawyers, engineers and accountants whose occupation involves long-time sedentary work, and doctors who work under high stress.

Currently, Firat's club has 200 students who come twice a week or on a daily basis.

"We are continuously receiving new participants," he said.

Mustafa Pekmezci and his two friends, all dentists, take rowing classes at the club every morning before starting their hospital work in the city.

"We spend one hour on the water before the work which is always overwhelmingly intense," Pekmezci, an expert on root canal treatment, told Xinhua.

"We work very hard during the day, and we continually look after our patients without having a seat for a moment," he said. "Therefore, we need to be in good health, both physically and mentally. And in that sense, the rowing courses fulfill our expectations."

Yalcin Boncuk, a 42-year-old IT director at a university, said doing water sports is something "fantastic" during the pandemic which has forced people to live in isolation.

Boncuk started rowing in the Golden Horn with his three friends two months ago.

"Here we are having a wonderful time, doing our exercises, get trained under the fresh air, and socializing with each other within the safe limits," he told Xinhua.

Firat believes that the interest will continue in the post-pandemic era as this sport has the opportunity to spread to the root of society becaue of the current pandemic conditions.

"We have many young trainees, who are 12-year-old, and we are trying hard to train them to be racers of the future," the club's founder noted.