Asian Games
Asian Games 2023: Indian rowers bag two silver, one bronze medal
Indian rowers finished on the podium in three out of five races on the first day of the Asian Games 2023.
Indian rowers Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh with their silver medal from men's lightweight sculls event
The Indian rowing team performed admirably on Sunday early morning to win two silver and one bronze medal across different categories to start their Asian Games campaign on a winning note.
The pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh started the day with a silver medal in the men's lightweight doubles sculls event. The Indian duo clocked 6:28.18s to finish behind China's Junjie Fan and Man Sun.
It was a close battle between India and China throughout the race but the Chinese pair pulled ahead in the last 500m to clinch the gold medal.
India's second medal in rowing came as the Indian pair of Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram finished with a bronze medal in the coxless pair event with a time of 6:50.41 sec, behind gold medallists Hong Kong, China (6:44.20 sec) and Uzbekistan 6:48.11.
After the first two medals, the Indian coxed-eight team fought a grueling race against China to win the silver medal with a time of 5:43.01s, which was 2.84s behind the host team, which clocked 5:40.17.
The Indian men's coxed-eight team comprised Neeraj, Nareskh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Puneet Kumar and Ashish.
The achievement is all the more creditable given that rowers from powerhouse Uzbekistan and Japan finished fourth and fifth respectively.
India missed out on a medal in men's double sculls as Satnam Singh and Parminder Singh finished a disappointing sixth after keeping themselves in the top three till 1500m in the race.
In women's four, Aswathi P. B., Mrunamayee N Salgaonkar, Priya Devi Thangjam, and Rukmani finished 5th with 7:12.40.
Indian rowing contingent will hope for more medals as three more finals are scheduled for tomorrow.
