Maharashtra team rowers, Parminder Singh and Sanket Patil, pushed hard in the final few metres to earn top place in the semi-final and qualified for the final of the doubles sculls event in the 37th senior National rowing championship at Army Rowing Node (ARN), College of Military Engineering (CME), on Thursday.
The duo from Maharashtra completed the race in seven minutes and 2.44 seconds.
Rowers from Punjab (7:05.95) and Uttarakhand (7:08.21) grabbed second and third spot respectively.
“We knew Punjab would be a tough competitor and we had seen them in heats on Wednesday. We started slowly and after the 1,000 metres mark, we excelled ourselves and once we got ahead of them then there was no looking back,” said Parminder Singh
Singh and Patil are training together since the last couple of months.
“For both of us, this is our first senior nationals. My partner Sanket has participated in junior nationals and he has also won a silver medal in 2018 Asian junior rowing championship in South Korea,” added Singh who is the son of Inderpal Singh, coach at Army Rowing Node.
“I won a silver medal in quadruple scull event,” said Patil, who is from the Boys Company Army Sports Institute.
{{/usCountry}}“I won a silver medal in quadruple scull event,” said Patil, who is from the Boys Company Army Sports Institute.
{{/usCountry}}In the first 500 metres of the race, Maharashtra rowers were very slow and stayed behind. Slowly and steadily they picked up speed and got ahead of all one by one.
“We needed to increase our rating (strokes per minute) to get ahead of other rowers and we kept pitching for that. Once we saw Punjab team is getting slower we increased our ratings and took the lead,” said Patil.
“I sat on the backside and kept on passing tips to Sanket which as a team helped us both to come up,” added Singh.
Sangram ensures a place in the final
Another Maharashtra rower, Sangram Apugade qualified for single sculls final. Apugade finished on the third place to ensure a place in the final.
“I started on a slow note but after that managed to pull out speed which helped me to qualify for final,” said Apugade who hails from Sangli.
Apugade completed the 2,000-metre distance in seven minutes 30.52 seconds. Ahead of him were Beant Singh and Bitu Singh who finished first and second respectively.
“Army rowers have a completely different routine. They stay here and practice on a regular basis which helps them to stay ahead of all,” added Apugade.
Results (Semifinals):
Single Sculls: 1. Beant Singh (Services) 7:25.99; 2. Bittu Singh (Army) 7:26.71; 3. Sangram Apugade (Maharashtra) 7:30.52.
Doubles Sculls: 1. Maharashtra 7:02.44; 2. Punjab 7:05.95; 3. Uttrakhand 7:08.21.