Hangzhou: Indian rowers staged twin comebacks to bag two bronze and sign off their Asian Games campaign in the watersport with five medals here Monday.
India bettered their medal count from the last edition when they had three podium finishes. However, they failed to win a gold medal this time, something the rowing squad could boast of five years ago.
Overall, India finished fifth here, an improvement of one place from their 2018 outing in Indonesia, where they had grabbed one gold and two bronze medals.
Hosts China topped the tally with 11 gold, two silver, while Uzbekistan finished second with two gold, four silver and one bronze.
The day began with the quartet of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish Goliyan narrowly missing a silver in men’s fours event.
Then the men’s quadruple sculls team of Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Khan and Sukhmeet Singh finished third on the podium with a timing of 6:08.61 seconds, behind Uzbekistan (6:04.64) and gold medallists China (6:02.65).
The quadruple skulls quartet improved from fourth place to finish third in the final 500-metre of the 2000-metre race.
In the men’s four event too, after lying fourth in the final 500metre of the 2000m race, the quartet showed superb coordination to finish third with 6:10.81s, and was pipped by China (6:10.04) by a fraction of seconds.
Uzbekistan took the top spot in the podium with a timing of 6:04.96.
Indian rower Balraj Panwar however missed out on a maiden Asian Games podium, finishing fourth in the men’s single sculls.
The 24-year-old from Karnal, who was among the top-three at the 1500-mark, faltered in the final 500m to slip to fourth place with a timing of 7:08.79s.
He finished less than nine seconds behind Hong Kong’s Hin Chun Chiu who took the bronze medal (7:00.55).
China’s Liang Zang secured the gold with 6:57.06, while Japan’s Ryuta Arakawa (6:59.79) and Hong Kong’s Hin Chun Chiu finished with silver and bronze respectively.
The Indian oarswomen disappointed the most, finishing bottom in the five-team field of the women’s eight with a timing of 7:05.71s, way behind China who took the gold medal clocking 6:33.61.
The Indian team of Sonali Swain, Ritu Kaudi, Priya Devi Thangjam, Varsha Kattathara, Aswathi Padinjarayil, Mrunmayee Salgaonkar, Tendenthoi Devi Haobijam, Rukmani and Geetanjali Gurugubelli hardly posed any challenge to their opponents.
Even the fourth-placed Thailand finished more than 15 seconds ahead of the Indians.
