Harpal Singh Bedi
New Delhi,21 April: Balraj Panwar earned the distinction of securing India’s first Paris Games quota in rowing as he finished third to claim the bronze medal in the single sculls (M1x) event at the Asian and Oceaninan Rowing Olympic Qualification Regatta, in Chungju, Korea on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Panwar, who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, clocked 7:17.87 in the heats and 7:16.29 in the semi-finals to make the finals in Chunju.
With Paris Olympic quotas on offer to the top five finishers, the Indian finished third with a timing of 7:01.27.
Vladislav Yakovlev of Kazakhstan won the race, clocking 6:59.46 while Indonesia’s Memo took the bronze with 6:59.74.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympian Arvind Singh and Ujjwal Kumar also finished with a bronze medal in the men’s lightweight double sculls (LM2x). Only the top two in the event obtained quotas.
Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat competed together in the category at the Tokyo Olympics and the duo won a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
1 However, since Arjun Lal Jat has suffered a back strain, Ujjwal partnered Arvind in Chungju.
The duo made it to the final through repechage before clocking 6:30.11 in the deciding race to finish behind teams from Japan (6:23.94) and Uzbekistan (6:28.04).
The double sculls duo of Salman Khan and Nitin Deol, meanwhile, won the gold medal with a timing of 6:35.73 in the Asian Rowing Cup, which is being held simultaneously with the Asian Qualifiers in Chungju.