CHENNAI: From the sidelines in Palembang, Indonesia during the 2018 Asian Games, rowers Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat watched their compatriots Bhagwan Singh and Rohit Kumar bag men's lightweight double sculls bronze for the country. They all celebrated the glorious moment together but the duo also resolved then and there that come the next continental showpiece event they would be standing on the podium.
Being in the reserve is not easy and they - Arvind and Arjun - experienced it first-hand in Indonesia. The resolution they took five years ago was fulfilled on Sunday as the duo became the first rowers from the country to win an Asian Games silver medal in the lightweight double sculls at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China. Before their exploits, India had won two bronze in the event in the past.
But there was a time when the dream seemed almost over with Arvind, a naib subedar in the Indian Army, struggling with a back injury. "Around June 10, I felt the pain in my back and visited my doctor. He told me that I had torn my back muscle. He advised me not to go in the water and suggested a few exercises to overcome the pain," Arvind told this daily from Hangzhou.
The biggest issue was selection trials scheduled on June 30 at the Army Rowing Node in Pune. With Arvind off the water, Arjun was forced to either practice alone or with another partner. Also, a naik subedar in the Army, Arjun, however, kept his partner Arvind motivated. "He was always there for me whenever I was cycling or doing exercises to recover from the back injury. We were quite confident that we could win trials if I, somehow, get into the water on the day of the competition. As expected we won the trials and those 20 days off the water also helped me recover the back pain," added 27-year-old Arvind, who hails from Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.
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. "After finishing 1km, we tried to overtake the Chinese rowers but by then they had taken a good 5-second lead. The aim was to win gold but that didn't happen. Hopefully, we can aim for it in the next Asian Games in 2026," he said. The duo had also competed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and finished a creditable 11th two years ago.
The Indian rowers continue their brilliant show thereafter as the men's coxed eight team comprising Neeraj, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish and Dhananjay Pande finished second behind the hosts to secure yet another silver for the country. Their timing was 5:43.01 seconds, which was 2.84 seconds behind the winners, who clocked 5:40.17. The Indonesian rowers clocked a time of 5:45.51s to finish third. "The target was gold and we went for it but unfortunately that cannot happen," Neeraj, a sapper in the Indian Army, whose job is to lay and clean mines apart from repairing roads and bridges, told this daily. In the coxless pair event, India's Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram finished with a bronze medal with a time of 6:50.41 seconds, behind Hong Kong (6:44.20 sec) and Uzbekistan 6:48.11. "This bronze in coxless pair is India's first since 1994. We are glad with the performance of our rowers today and are hopeful that they continue their show tomorrow (Monday) as well," Rajlaxmi Singh Deo, president of the Rowing Federation of India (RFI), told this daily. The country has sent a huge contingent of 33 rowers to the continental games.