NAGOYA: If true, this is something unheard of during any Games, let alone something as big as the Asian Games. The athletes are confused and have threatened to stay away from practice if the need arises.
There is a section of rowers who are hoping that things would resolve but a distrust has been created between coaches and players. If sources are to be believed, some of the rowers have been shifted from their pet events while another athlete, a reserve at first, is in line to feature.
This seemingly happened just after the morning practice on Monday. A small recap.
Initially, the rowing events were scheduled to start on Sunday. However, with an impending weather system threatening to hit the city, the start was pushed back to Wednesday. Meanwhile, the team management shunted athletes from one category to other, which according to some, is not possible because the rules do not allow it. Though there is a section that says changing team composition is a norm depending on the conditions.
Officials close to the development said the case is not what it looks like. There is another section that says things might change on Tuesday as combinations have not been finalized yet. A top official explained that the change was made in consultation with the foreign coach Antony John Patterson.
The logic is simple. The schedule got truncated because of the presence of a typhoon. In a late development here, officials are even saying that the number of combinations may reduce by Tuesday.
One of the officials said that they made the changes to increase the chances of winning medals. “Because the tournament days have been reduced, it would be impossible for the rowers to compete multiple times since rowing is an exhausting sport,” said one official.
“The change in combination was based on the truncated schedule and the weather conditions,” said an official who is part of the team. Apparently, according to an official, adding a reserve rower would help them because they would be fresh.
This apparently has been done because India had a terrible outing at the World Championships just before the Asian Games. Sources close to the development alleged that double sculls competitors, Navdeep Singh and Kulwinder Singh, were shifted out of the event and moved to quadruple sculls. Salman Khan and Satnam Singh, who were earlier in quadruple sculls, replaced them in double sculls.
Balraj Panwar, who was in quadruple sculls, was shifted to single sculls while Arvind Singh was moved out of the event and put in quad. Vipul Ghurde would be shifted from the men’s pair to coxless 4. Saurav Kumar was sent to reserve while Jasmail Singh, who was reserve, made his way into coxless 4. The duo was replaced by Nitin Kumar and Jaswinder Singh in the men's pair. They were in coxless 4 before the big switch.
According to a senior rowing official, 50 per cent of crew can be changed in case of medical emergency but players allege this was complete change.
