Sr. National Rowing: Bhokanal fails to advance; Army, Services rowers head into final faceoffs

Pune:  Dattu Bhokanal, the 2018 Asian Games gold medallist, failed to make it to the final of the Single Sculls event on his comeback run as rowers from Army and Services hogged the limelight in the semifinals of the 40th Senior and 24th Open Sprint National Rowing Championships 2023 at the Army Rowing Node, CME here on Thursday.

In the men’s section, the two rowing powerhouses — Oarsmen from the Army Sports Control Board (ASCB) and the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) — had 11 top-place finishes on Day-2 of the competition, while four other units — Chandigarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, were left to join the final competition.

Likewise, in the women’s section honours were scattered with seven states having their representation in the finals. Orissa and Madhya Pradesh had two finalists each.

Maharashtra’s interest was kept alive with Nashik-lass Mrunmayee Salgaonkar making it to the final of the Single Sculls (W1x) clocking 8:22.4s. The effort by Mrunmayee, an ARN trainee, was far better than Punjab’s Kushpreet Kaur (8:35.9s) who topped in the corresponding semifinal.

In the corresponding men’s race, it was Satnam Singh (7:17.3s) who won his face-off with Tokyo Olympian Arvind Singh (7:18.9s). Later, Armyman Karamjit (7:31.9s) joined in as the winner of the second semifinal.

With the ongoing races going into a sundown finish, Army rowers topped in the; Coxed Eights, Single Sculls, Double Sculls, Quadruple Sculls, Lightweight Double Sculls and Coxless Pairs events. On the other hand, Services are squared up for a face-off in four events namely the Coxless Pairs, Double Sculls, Coxless Fours, and Lightweight Double Sculls.

The day, later, witnessed the first gold medal decided in the Para Men’s Single Scull.

World Cup bronze medallist Hav. Narayan Konganapalle did well by clocking 8 minutes 14.1 seconds to pip Armyman Nk. Kuldeep (8:59.9).

RESULTS (all semifinals)

Men:

Coxed Eights (M8): 1-Army (Akshat, Jasmail Singh, Vipul Ghurde; Vikash Kumar; Ashish Goliyan; Iqbal Singh; Neeraj; Yogesh Kumar; Dhananjay Pande); 2-Madhya Pradesh

Coxless Fours (MCV4): 1-Chandigarh (Sukhdeep Singh; Gulshan Kumar; Sahil Mudgil; Aditya Singh; 6:38.6s); 2-Haryana

Open Double Sculls (MCV2x): 1-Madhya Pradesh (Nitesh Bharadwaj; Prabhakar Rajawat; 6:44.9); 2-Uttrakhand

Single Sculls (M1x): 1-Satnam Singh (Individual; 7:17.3); 2- Arvind Singh (7:18.9s)

Coxless Fours (MCV4): 1-Madhya Pradesh (Gopal Thakur; Rohit Sendhav; Soyal; Yogesh Thakur; 6:34.9s); 2-Orissa

Open Double Sculls (MCV2x): 1-Orissa (Karanbir Singh Bhinder; Shobhit Pandey 6:59.3s); 2-Chandigarh

Single Sculls (M1x): 1-Army (Karamjit; 7:31.9s); 2-Rajasthan

Double Sculls (M2x): 1-Army (Sukhmeet Singh, Jakar Khan; 6 minutes 50.0 seconds); 2-Haryana

Quadruple Sculls (M4): 1-Army (Akshat, Vikash Kumar, Neeraj, Iqbal Singh); 2-Delhi

Light Weight Double Sculls (LM2): 1-Army (Ashish Phugat, Arwindar Singh; 6:46.2s); 2-Punjab (Jaspreet Singh, Sukhjinder Singh)

Coxless Pairs (M2): 1-Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) (Ankit Kasanya, Lekhi Ram); 2-Punjab

Double Sculls (M2x): 1-SSCB (Shagandeep Singh, Parminder Singh); 2-Delhi

Coxless Fours (M4): 1-SSCB: (Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar Ashish; 6.12.7s); 2- Jharkhand

Light Weight Double Sculls (LM2): 1-SSCB (Arjun Lal Jat, Ajay Tyagi; 6:43.1s); 2-Haryana

Coxless Pairs (M2): 1-Army (Sannee Kumar; Kulbir); 2-Telengana; 3-Maharashtra (Tejas Shinde, Omkar Mhaske; 7:02.1s)

Women:

Double Sculls (W2X): 1-Manipur (Thangiam Priya Devi; Haobijam Tendenthoi Devi; 7:50.8); 2-Madhya Pradesh

Coxless Pairs (W2): 1-Kerala (Archa A; Varsha KB; 8:16.6s); 2- Tamil Nadu

Light Weight Double Sculls (LW2x): 1-Orissa (Anshika Bharati; Reshma Kumari Minz; 8:13.9s); 2-Andaman

Coxless Pairs (W2): 1-Orissa (Sonali Swain, Ritu Kaudi; 8:14.5s); 2-Madhya Pradesh

Light Weight Double Sculls (LW2x): 1-Madhya Pradesh (Vindhya Sankath, Poonam; 7:59.3); 2-Haryana

Single Sculls (W1X): 1-Punjab (Kushpreet Kaur; 8:35.9s); 2-Telengana (B-Hemlata)

Quadruple Sculls (W4x): 1-Kerala (Amala Prasad; Aswani Kumaran, Devpriya, Anupama TK; 7:23.1s); 2-Orissa

Single Sculls (W1x): 1-Maharashtra (Mrunmayee Salgaonkar; 8:22.4s); 2-Uttar Pradesh (Kiran Devi; 8;32.4s)

Quadruple Sculls (W4x): 1-Madhya Pradesh (Vindhya Sankanth; Gurbani Kaur; Monika Bhadoria; Poonam; 7:19.1s); 2- Manipur.

–IANS