Kimia Zarei and Zeinab Norouzi won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls and silver in the double sculls at the Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday, after weeks of training disrupted by bombing in Iran.
The Iranian crew won the lightweight final in 6:53.93, finishing 5.31 seconds ahead of Hong Kong at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course. They then took silver behind China in the separate women’s double sculls event. Fatemeh Mojallal also won the lightweight single sculls, giving Iran its first two women’s rowing golds at an Asian Games.
An erg in Hamadan
Iran’s rowing federation cancelled its camp after the conflict began and sent athletes home with ergometers. Zarei returned to Hamadan, separated from her team as she prepared for the Games.
“We were being bombed every day,” Zarei told Sportstar. “For a month, I trained in my room, using only an ergometer. Every day, I did 20 kilometres.”
“We faced a lot of difficulties after the war began, but we wanted to show that we are strong,” federation chief Mohsen Shadi Naghadeh told The New Indian Express. “We gave every rower an ergometer so they could continue training at home.”
Zarei trained alone for around 45 days, one session stands out in her memory.
“I was about to start training when I heard bombing so close to our home that, when I looked out of the window, I could see everything — the smoke and all,” she said.
“There were times when I had to stop training because there was bombing near my home. Sometimes I would ask myself: should we be trying to save our lives or trying to row?”
The team later returned to camp and resumed on-water training. Zarei trained in Urmia, where the federation had use of a two-kilometre course.
A quarter of a second at Hangzhou
At the previous Asian Games in Hangzhou, Zarei had finished fourth, only a quarter-second short of bronze. She remembered crying after that race.
“I managed to stay motivated every day by thinking about the medal, my people, my family and my future,” she said. “This medal really matters to the Iranian people, especially Iranian girls.”
