MANGALURU: Close on the heels of Srinivasa Gowda, who broke a 30-year-old record to become the fastest Kambala racer to catapult to stardom, comes another buffalo racer, who is now learnt to have broken Gowda's record.
In the Surya Chandra Kambala held at Venur, Nishanth Shetty shot past the 100-meter mark in just 9.52 seconds, 0.3 seconds faster than Gowda.
Interestingly, two others – Akkeri Suresh Shetty and Irvathuru Anand - who also took part in the same Kambala also came very close to Gowda's record by covering the distance in 9.57 seconds.
In Hagga-Hiriya category, Nishanth, who was riding the buffaloes (Bolle-Kaje) of Erimaru Gopalakrishna Bhat, covered the 143-meter long slushy track in 13.61 seconds, which means he took only 9.52 seconds to cover the first 100 meters, said the Kambala organisers.
Nishanth Shetty told reporters that Sunday's performance in Venur is his best ever and he was happy for it.
Gowda, 28, had earlier taken 13.62 seconds to cover a distance of 145 metres at the Kambala at Aikala village about 30 kilometres from Mangaluru, breaking the earlier record dating back to the early 1990s.
Gowda has been on a record-breaking spree during the current Kambala season and bagged 29 prizes in the 12 Kambalas he participated in during the current season. He created a new record by winning prizes in all four categories at the Aikala event which is a first in the history of Kambala. In a couple of other Kambala events, he won three prizes each.
There were calls for Gowda who has been dubbed as India's Usain Bolt to be given a trial, but he himself said track events were different.
"In Kambala race, heels play an important role whereas it is toes in a track race. Not just jockeys, but even Buffaloes have a role to play in Kambala. In track race, this is not the case" Gowda told The New Indian Express.
What Nishanth Shetty now has to say on this topic is something we will have to wait to know.
Kambala jockeys get a remuneration of Rs 1-2 lakh to train buffaloes and take part in competitions for a season. The owners also give them cash prizes if their buffaloes win any contests.