Rowing Nationals: Manipur women's dominate, Services and Army reach final

Manipur dominated the women's category while Services and Army dominated in the men's category of the Open Sprint National Rowing Championship on Wednesday.

The Manipur women reserved their final berth in the lightweight double sculls, as the pair of Poonam and Rukhmani clocked eight minutes and 29.3 seconds here at the Army Rowing Node situated in the College of Military Engineering (CME) campus.

In the coxless pairs event, Gurbani Kaur and Diljot Kaur came up with an effort of 9:16.4 seconds to top the day. The third final came when the double sculls duo Thangjam Priya Devi and Haobijam Devi produced an effort of 08:46.6 seconds.

Also, Maharashtra's Mrunmayee Salgaonkar kept her state's hopes alive by bringing up an effort of 09:40.6 seconds, which won her the single sculls semi-final.

In the men's category, Services accumulated five finals while Army secured three final berths.

The Asian Games 2022 bronze medallists from Services; Jaswinder, Bheema, Puneet, and Ashish presented a dominant version of themselves by winning the men's coxless fours.

Services reached the coxed eights, double sculls, lightweight double sculls, quadruple sculls, and single sculls event finals. Additionally, the defending champion Salman Khan finished first in his semi-final by securing a time of 08:32.1 seconds.

The Army oarsmen presented their dominance with Asian Games duo Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram, who did not break a sweat during the coxless pairs with an effort of 07:56.2 seconds to enter the finals.

The Army also qualified for the coxed eights and double sculls finals.

Among the other exhilarating races was the battle of two Olympians - Balraj Panwar, who represented India at Hangzhou, and Dattu Baban Bhokanal, Rio Olympian. It culminated in the former brushing aside the challenge in the singles sculls and reaching the finals.