Three rowers — Gurinder Singh, Atul Kumar and Amit Singh — have been training under the tutelage of Dronacharya and chief national coach Ismail Baig at the Hussain Sagar Lake for the last two years.
They have been short-listed to take part in the rowing competitions (coxless pairs) of the second Youth Olympics to be held in Nanjing (China) from August 16 to 28.
India, which can field only two rowers, earned the right for the Youth Olympics by virtue of its 12th place finish in the junior world championship last year by Jasveer Singh and Jaydeep Singhate.
However, since both of them crossed the age limit of 18 years to be no longer eligible for the Youth Olympics, the chief coach has to pick the next best two this time around.
Amit and Atul, from the Boys Sports Company have been in the news for all the right reasons till now. Atul won two gold in the junior Nationals and Amit won the junior Asian silver in the coxless four event last year in Uzbekistan.
“We are hopeful of a special performance given the intensity in the training programme at this Lake here,” the chief coach said. “What is important is to rise to the occasion on the given day,” he added.
For their part, the rowers apparently don’t want to debate as to which two of them will make it to the Indian team. “We are ready for the challenge ahead and the training sessions have not only been really demanding but thoroughly enjoyable as Sir [Ismail Baig] hones our skills in simulated race conditions on the lake,” they said.
“The ultimate goal is to win medals in the forthcoming Asian Games. We have the experience and the expertise to surprise many. We have been training really hard to achieve this goal,” Ismail Baig said.
“We are grateful to the RFI, Union Sports Ministry and the Sports Authority of India and the SAAP here for their continued support to encourage the rowers excel at the international level. We don’t have any major issues hampering our training programme,” insists Ismail Baig.
In fact, it is not just these three rowers who are going through the grind but the entire Indian contingent preparing for the major events lined up later this year is into the waters daily to finetune their skills.
“Everyone is enjoying the training sessions and we hope to live up to the expectations,” says Asian Games gold medallist Bajrang Lal Thakkar, echoing the feelings of his fellow rowers.
