Asian Games rowing: Two silvers boost India’s tally (Second Lead)

GUANGZHOU - The Indian men’s rowing team gave a much-needed thrust to the medals tally with their stellar show, winning two silvers on the sixth day of competitions at the Asian Games here Thursday.

The silvers came in the men’s four and lightweight men’s four events at the International Rowing Centre.

Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh and Jenil Krishnan won the silver in men’s four event with an overall timing of 6 mins 16.79 seconds, 10.39s behind gold medallist China (Sun Zhaowen, Wu Lin, Li Dongjian and Liu Kun).

Uzbekistan (Sergey Tyan, Efim Kuznetsov, Botir Murodov and Yukob Khamzaev) took the bronze, pipping Kazakhstan with a timing of 6 mins.

The Indian team maintained a good pace right from the start and were behind China by 0.25 seconds after 500 meters. The Chinese, however, widened the gap as the race progressed. India gave them a tough fight but their timing of 1 mins 36.74s in the final 500 meters was not enough.

In lightweight men’s four, Lokesh Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Rajesh Kumar Yadav and Satish Joshi finished second in 6 mins 13.32s.

The Indian team was 3.18 seconds behind Japan (Takahiro Suda, Hideki Omoto, Yu Kataoka and Yoshinori Sato), which took the gold, clocking 6 mins 10.14s.

Hong Kong’s Shek Chin Leung, Cheong Ki Kwan, Yin Shun Liao and Mang Chiu Tang won the bronze, 4.70s behind Japan.

Krishnan, who picked up his third consecutive medal at the Games adding to his bronze in Busan and silver in Doha, said they were eyeing the gold.

“The Chinese were too good. We gave our best, but in the end it was not enough to win a gold medal,” said Krishnan.

Lokesh, who along with three of his team members belong to the Artillery Centre, Hyderabad, was ecstatic with the performance of the lightweight team.

“It is a proud moment for the entire team.”

Team coach Ismail Baig said that the two silver medals were the result of the the hard work the rowers put for the Games. “They have taken big strides,” he said.

He said that he is expecting a gold from Bajrang Lal Thakar in the men’s singles sculls, in which the Indian won a silver at Doha.

The Indians, however, failed to get to the podium in three other rowing events they competed in during the day.

The women’s four team of Monalisa Khumanthem, Rameshwori Devi, Tababi Devi and Shruti Kamath finished fifth, clocking 7 min 08.85s

The doubles sculls pair of Anil Mehroliya and Devender Khandwal finished sixth, clocking 6 min 49.34s.

Sandeep Kumar and Shokender Tomar were fifth in lightweight double sculls (6 min 42.23s).