Arjun Lal Jat-Arvind Singh Rowing Pair Wins Silver; Coxed-Eight Team Too Comes In Second

Indian rowers powered their way to two silver and a bronze medal, launching their campaign in the Asian Games on a rollicking note on Sunday. On a pleasant morning with the conditions just perfect for rowing at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre, Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh opened the country's account with a silver medal in the men's lightweight doubles sculls event. The Indian duo clocked 6:28.18s to finish behind China's Junjie Fan and Man Sun, who won gold with 6:23.16s.

The Uzbekistan pair of Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroliyev bagged the bronze clocking 6:33.42s.

The silver was just the preview of the things to come as the gruelling men's coxed eight event saw a keen tussle between China and India before the latter finished second with a time of 5:43.01s, which was 2.84s behind the host team, which clocked 5:40.17.

The Indian men's coxed-eight team comprised Neeraj, Nareskh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Puneet Kumar and Ashish.

Indonesia, who clocked a time of 5:45.51s were third.

The achievement is all the more creditable given that rowers from powerhouse Uzbekistan and Japan finished fourth and fifth respectively.

In the coxless pair event, India Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram had to settle for bronze with a time of 6:50.41 sec, behind gold medallists Hong Kong, China (6:44.20 sec) and Uzbekistan 6:48.11.

India has sent a huge contingent of 33 rowers at the continental games.

Arvind, following his exploits in lightweight doubles sculls, said the pair was aiming for gold but an injury setback two months back had hampered training.

"We missed training for 20 to 25 days as I was having lower-back pain two months back. Otherwise, we would have won the gold medal," said