Asian Games: India's rowers off to impressive start

The Indian men's and women's rowing team made an impressive start at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Wednesday.

The Indian men's and women's Coxless Four team advanced to the final along with the men's coxed eights team, to keep themselves in the hunt for the medal.

The lightweight men's double sculls duo of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh, showed their grit with a second-place finish in the heats, clocking a time of 6:27.45.

Meanwhile, Satnam Singh and Parminder Singh also finished second in their respective heat with a time of 6:27.01. With this, they both qualify for the repechage round where they will compete for Final A berths!

Meanwhile, the women's rowing team also started off on a positive note.

Kiran and Anshika Bharti, the Indian Lightweight Women's Double Sculls duo, secured fourth spot in their heat by clocking a time of 7:27.57, and will next compete in the repechage round for a place in the final.

In the men's doubles coxless, India's Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram finished third by registering a timing of 6:42.59.

The Indian women’s Fours team of P B Aswathi, Mrunmayee Salgaonkar, Priya Devi Thangjam and Rukmani warmed up for the final with a sixth place finish in 7:09.07 in the preliminary race. All six teams would figure in the medal race.

The men's team of Neeraj, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish and Dhananjay Pande (Cox) finished second in 5:38.65 in the men's eight preliminary race.  All six teams will race in the final.

Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram finished third in the men’s pair preliminary race in 6:42.59. All six pairs will race in the final.