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India find treasure in water
India's rowers showed grit and determination to win two silver medals in Doha, write Ajai Masand/Khurram Habib.
It is not often that India win medals in a sport that few people in the country know about, let alone play. On Thursday, however, India's rowers showed grit and determination to win two silver medals in Doha.
Bajranglal Thakar won the silver in men's single sculls while the team of Dharmesh Sangwan, Jenil Krishnan, Sukhjeet Singh and Satish Joshi clinched another in the men's four category. This followed India's bronze in men's lightweight double sculls on Wednesday.
Speaking to the Hindustan Times, the secretary general of the Rowing Federation of India, CP Singh Deo said, "This is the first time we have done so well in an international competition. It is a great achievement." Winning medals in this sport have always been hard work and the last moment of pride Deo could recall was the 1982 Asiad, when India won a bronze.
"The most positive thing to come out of this performance is the fact that we were always in contention for gold. If you look at the time, you'll see that Bajranglal missed the gold by a whisker — just 21 seconds," Deo added.
The other silver-medallists — the men's four team members — were slower and lost to their Japanese opponents by over four minutes.
The victory for the rowers, most of who are Servicemen, is even sweeter considering the nations they were up against have traditionally been strong in this sport. "All through the competition, India were up against China, Korea, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan — all big powers in this game," Deo added.
