Asian Rowing Championships: Indian rowers strike gold, silver medals

Express News Service

CHENNAI: Indian rowers had a good day at the ongoing Asian Championships in Thailand as they struck a gold and a silver medal on Saturday. The double sculls pair of Arjun Lal Jat, who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and Ravi clinched gold while debutant Parminder Singh bagged silver in single sculls.

In double sculls, the Indian pair finished first in 6:57.88 minutes ahead of teams from Thailand, China, Uzbekistan, Indonesia and Singapore. The silver won by Parminder on his debut will hold a great importance as he became the first civilian from the country in several years to bag a rowing medal in an international meet. The single sculler clocked 8:07.32 minutes to finish behind his Uzbekistan counterpart in the race.

It is learnt that Parminder didn’t get the boat proportionate to his body weight (above 95kg) and this might have slowed him down as he was leading in the first 500 m. “The boat we hired here was for rowers between 75 kg to 90 kg. As I was overweight, water was getting in the boat because of which it was lying low. I cannot say that forced me to finish second but I can say with certainty that I have learnt a lot in my first international experience,” 20-year-old Parminder told The New Indian Express.

Despite the race being his maiden in the international circuit, Parminder improved a lot in just a couple of days. He was last among the five contestants in the preliminary race held on Thursday but better his show to finish on the podium. “After the last place finish in prelims, coaches and fellow rowers gave me valuable suggestions to counter the windy condition. Their advice helped a lot,” added Parminder.

His father Inderpal Singh, who is with the Indian contingent in Thailand and India’s first Olympian in rowing, said the medal will motivate Parminder to do better and come up with a great show in the 2022 Asian Games.

“He is not with the Army but was allowed to use every facility at the Army Rowing Node in Pune to sharpen his skills. Commanding officer Colonel Sandeep Chahal, national coaches Ismail Baig, Bajrang Lal, Gurdarshan Singh apart from Rajesh Kumar, Karmbir Singh trained him at the national camp. The Rowing Federation of India also supported him a lot to make it happen,” said Inderpal.

India can expect more medals on Sunday with its rowers scheduled to compete in the five finals on the final day.