A FEW months back Indian rower Arvind Singh was not sure whether he would be able to participate in the Asian Games in Hangzhou because of a serious lower-back injury that threatened to hamper his progress following he and his partner Arjun Lal Jat had made the world take note of their talent by reaching semi-finals at the Tokyo Olympics. But a month-long session with a physio associated with the Indian Army helped him recover and on Sunday he and Arjun Lal Jat bagged silver in the lightweight men’s double sculls, India’s first medal in rowing at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

 

What made it a memorable day for Indian rowing was that the men’s coxed eight also won silver while Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram claimed a bronze medal as the rowers made a big splash at the 19th Asian Games by bagging three medals on penultimate day of rowing competitions at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre. Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat set the ball rolling for India in the men’s lightweight double sculls event when they completed the course in a timing of 6 minutes 28.18 seconds, finishing behind the Chinese duo — Junje Fan and Man Sun, who crossed the finish line in 6:23.16. Uzbekistan’s Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroumov won the bronze medal in 6:32.47. The men’s coxed eight added more lustre to the performance when the team won a silver medal. The Indian team of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neeraj, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh and Dhananjay Pande won the silver medal while Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram won bronze medal in the men’s pair events on Sunday, taking the Indian tally in rowing to three medals on the day.

 

WOMEN SHOOTERS SHINE: THE experienced trio of Mehuli Ghosh, Ramita Jindal and Ashi Chouksey bagged the women’s team silver while Ramita also clinched an individual bronze in the 10m air rifle event as Indian shooters made an impressive start. A combined score of 1,886.0 earned the Indian troika the second spot behind hosts China, who smashed the Asian record with a score of 1,896.6. Junior world champion Ramita then won the individual bronze in her event, shooting 230.1 in the eight-shooter finals. China won both the gold and silver medals in the event with Huang Yuting breaking the Games record with a score of 252.7 on way to top podium finish. Han Jiayu came in second with 251.3 points. The 19-year-old Ramita was in contention for a silver medal before she fell behind because of a rank poor 9.9 on the 13th shot.