MANGALURU: Coastal Karnataka’s traditional buffalo race ‘Kambala’ is gaining popularity across the globe as enthusiasts from Afghanistan, Germany and Denmark have travelled to Mangaluru to watch the race that is run in slushy paddy fields accompanied by buffaloes. On Sunday, they visited the famed Mangaluru Kambala, which is being held at Goldfinch City.
These spectators told The New Indian Express that they read about Kambala online and they were amazed to know about Srinivas Gowda, who is known to run faster than track star Usain Bolt. Srinivas Gowda, a construction worker from Mijar in Moodbidri, rose to fame in 2020 when he covered 142.5 metres in 13.62 seconds. For 100 metres, it translates to 9.55 seconds, which is 0.03 seconds faster than Usian Bolt’s world record time of 9.58 seconds.
Henri from Denmark said, “We were on a business trip and we wanted to watch Kambala live. We read about the event and Srinivas Gowda online. We were amazed to witness the unique sport and we really enjoyed it.” He was accompanied by Thomas, Carsten, Pete and Susanna, also from Denmark.
Sayyad Ahmed, an Afghan national and a student at Mangalore University also watched Kambala along with his family for the first time. “This is a unique sport and the culture of Dakshina Kannada is beautiful,” he said.