Fisherman’s daughter to a rowing coach: Meet Narengbam Lakshmi Devi

I am Lakshmi Devi from Manipur. I started rowing in 2009 and back then my main target was to get a job. I never thought I would come this far.

After one or two years of training, I felt I could represent India. We could earn more respect and recognition for our country.

I kept training and in 2011, I went on to represent India at the Asian and World Championships. I joined the national camp in Hyderabad and continued there till the 2014 Asian Games. I also participated in the World Championships.

The culture of rowing is still very limited in Manipur. My father, who is a fisherman, used to catch fish in the lake and people living around depended on it for their livelihood.

It was during the 1999 National Games, we learnt about the sport. There was a girl named Wahida Rehman, an athlete who had learned basic boat handling just a month before the Games, and she finished fourth.

Immediately after the games, a club named Loktak was formed.

Learning without a coach

In 2018, I got a job as a physical education teacher. By then, I had completed my NIS diploma from Kerala too. My role involved store management and I used my free time in morning and evening to coach at the Loktak club.

In Manipur, there is a culture of water sports because it helps in getting jobs and the area is also a tourist destination. But we still don’t have enough facilities for food and accommodation at the club. We don’t have the resources to go scouting for girls because people ask what facilities we can provide.

The club mainly offers boats and free coaching. Some interested youngsters come on their own. Some senior players also coach there now and there is now a Khelo India centre too.

The training happens at Takmu Water Sports Complex, around 40 km away from Imphal. Around 15-20 people came for rowing, while nearly 60-70 youngsters would come for kayaking.

But back then, there were not many girls of my height. I was the tallest among them. Now, I am the shortest among them. Most tall girls preferred to join sports like volleyball and other popular games because rowing was not so popular then. Most girls available were around 5’6” tall.

Internationally, the sport has grown manifold. It is still in the developing stage in India, but we are not able to move at the same pace as other countries.

Till date, no Indian woman rower has qualified for the Olympics. Our dream is to have India represented at the Olympics by this group training at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), Bellary.

In my playing days, I didn’t have a proper coach. My kabaddi physical education teacher trained me. I didn’t know the basics of rowing including how to grip properly, how to square the blade, or how to generate more power from the back. I learnt all this under Ismail sir at the Hyderabad camp.

When I could reach that level without proper coaching and facilities, the rowers today can do much better with dedicated support.

I got integrated into coaching and once rowers from Manipur started winning medals at senior and sub-junior level, the federation offered me the role of assistant coach.

New era for women’s rowing

Since 2025, the Rowing Federation of India and IIS have joined hands and our team of Gurbani Kaur and Diljot Kaur won a medal after 13 years at the Asian Championships. I feel like I’m living my dream through the hard work of these young rowers.

European rowers naturally have greater strength capacity. Their average height is around 185-190 cm, while in India even 170-181 cm is considered tall.

They also have better stroke length and power. China is another dominant team in Asia.

Recently, former New Zealand rower and Olympic silver medallist Emma Dyke visited Bellary for two weeks to oversee our training.

The team worked very well together. We increased the load during training sessions and everyone gave their best in that one month.

For the first time, we have all facilities like sports science, physiotherapy and nutrition under one roof. We didn’t get all these things in Hyderabad.

If there is any issue, we can address it immediately and be ready for the next training session.

For the upcoming Asian Games, we have already qualified in two team events — double sculls and coxless pair.

But before that we have World Cup 1 in Spain at the end of May, followed by World Cup 2 in Bulgaria and finally World Cup 3 in Switzerland. Our fours team also has a good chance of qualifying.

The Indian men’s team has consistently won medals because they train together throughout the year. The Army has a separate team with at least 50 rowers and they have a strong depth system with A, B and C groups.

For women, after the senior nationals in January-February till the Asia Cup in September, there used to be a huge gap in training. Camps would begin only 30-40 days before tournaments and rowers trained on their own. Some would get married, get jobs or gain weight and their performances would decline. Different centres followed different techniques, making synchronization difficult.

But in the current setup, the Indian women’s team has been training together since 2025 and we are improving our performances. Hopefully we can have representation of the Indian woman rowing team at the 2028 LA Olympics.