A day after Saurav Ghosal’s slip in men’s squash, gold played hard to get once again for the Indians at the 17th Asian Games here.
Rower Dushyant Chauhan was in the yellow range for a good part of the men’s lightweight men’s single sculls final at the Chungju Tangeum Lake, about a 100km from Incheon, on Wednesday, but heavy winds and rain messed up his day. He came back with just a bronze.
The 21-year-old national champion, who won a bronze at the reputed Paola d’aloja Regatta in Italy in April, was in the second spot after the first 500m in the 2000m event but quickly pushed his way to the lead soon after that.
He was in the front at the halfway mark and after 1500m too.
“In fact, I was even leading at 1600m but winds and heavy rain turned out to be a big problem. My lane, the second, suffered the most with winds coming from the north side and this held my boat back,” said Dushyant after the race.
“The weather also made my body tight.”
“Dushyant’s was a sure gold, he was very unlucky,” said M.V. Sriram, the Chennai-based Rowing Federation of India’s general secretary who is in Incheon.
Lok Kwan Hoi, who went without a medal despite entering two finals at the Guangzhou Asiad four years ago, won the gold and it was Hong Kong’s first in the sport.
The host South Korea’s Lee Hak Beom took the silver.
A few years ago, Dushyant was into wrestling and kabaddi in his native village in Haryana. He even was a regular at wrestling State meets.
But, after joining the Army, the youngster was coaxed to try out rowing at the BEG Centre in Roorkee two years ago where the coach felt that his physique was ideal for the sport.
It did not take long for him to learn the ropes.
And on Wednesday, the 21-year-old Dushyant, who has Kerala’s Asian champion and Asian Games multiple medallist Saji Thomas as his hero, turned up with a medal in his maiden Asiad.
Roopendra, Manjeet finish fourth
Meanwhile, Roopendra Singh and Manjeet Singh finished fourth in the men’s lightweight double sculls event while Sanjukta Dung Dung and Tarunikha Pratap were fifth in the women’s pairs.
The results (finals):
Men’s lightweight single sculls: 1. Lok Kwan Hoi (HKg) 7:25.04s, 2. Lee Hak Beom (Kor) 7:25.95, 3. Dushyant Chauhan (Ind) 7:26.57.
Men’s lightweight double sculls: 1. Takahiro & Hideki Omoto (Jpn) 7:00.57s, 2. Kwong Wing Chow & Chiu Mang Tang (HKG) 7:05.69, 3. Tainfeng Dong & Deming Kong (Chn) 7:10.70, 4. Roopendra Singh & Manjeet Singh (Ind) 7:14.76s.
Women’s pairs: 1. Min Zhang & Miao Tian (Chn) 7:30.63s, 2. Jeon Seoyeong & Kim Seohee (Kor) 7:46.73, 3. Yekaterina Artemyeva & Viktoriya Chepikova (Kaz) 7:47.73. 5. Sanjukta Dung Dung & Tarunikha Pratap (Ind) 8:28.13.
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