Asian Games 2023: India win bronze medal in Men's Four, Quadruple sculls events

India’s quartet of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish won a bronze medal in Men’s Four discipline in rowing at the 19th Asian Games on Monday. Their time of 6:10.81 was 5.85 seconds shy gold medallists Uzbekistan. China, the host nation, took the silver medal. Indian rowers nearly ended the Chinese dominance on the Beizhi river but luck was not on their side in the last 20 metres, missing out on a silver by milliseconds. Indian rowers had one of their oars stuck in the buoy as the Chinese pipped them at the post. “It was a close race. We had tried to beat the Chinese from the start and it was all going according to plan, but a mistake in the last 20 metres of the race really cost us a silver medal by a fraction of a second,” Punit said at the Fuyang Water Sports Centre. “There was a crosswind today, which led us to go off course and one of our oars got stuck in the buoy, and that resulted in our silver medal turning to bronze.” Punit, an Army man, who has won silver and bronze medals in the previous two editions of the Asian Championships, felt this would inspire the next generation. “Hopefully the generations after us will realise that we have the potential to defeat China in future competitions,” he said. Home advantage is a factor but Punit’s teammate Ashish Goliyan feels a good preparation is what it takes to beat the Chinese. “It depends on practice. If you have trained well and prepared for the conditions, you can do well anywhere and win medals. “Home advantage definitely has a role to play, but if you train well, you will get the results you are out to get,” he said. “There’s not a lot of outside noise in the water. We are giving instructions to each other and motivating each other, so we can’t really hear what’s happening outside. “It was not our day and we made a mistake which cost us a silver medal,” he added. Not long after, India’s Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Khan and Sukhmeet Singh won a bronze medal in Men’s Quadruple Sculls. Their time of 6:08.61 paled in response to China (6:02.65) and Uzbekistan (6:04.64) who took the top-two spots. India have now won five medals in rowing and extended the country’s tally at the Games to eight medals. Earlier in the day, India won their first gold medal in shooting with the 10m Air Rifle Team bagging top honours courtesy their superlative individual performances in qualifying. [caption id=“attachment_13164112” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] India’s Quadruple Sculls medal winning team at the 19th Asian Games. Image: Screenshot/SonyLiv[/caption] In the Men’s Four event, Indian rowers were fourth after the first 500m and 1000m but surged ahead of Japan by the 1500m and finishing line. Meanwhile in the Men’s Quadruple event, Indian rowers were fourth only after the first 500m. After it, they never let go of the third spot but were not able to bridge the gap ahead either.