ANGZHOUGU: Bajrang Lal Takhar stole the limelight with a historic gold in men’s singles scull as Indian rowers notched up three more medals while the shooters chipped in with a bronze on the seventh day of competitions in the 16th Asian Games here today.
Apart from Bajrang Lal’s gold, which is first for an Indian rower at the Games, the Indian men’s eight team grabbed silver and the women claimed the pair bronze to make it a very fruitful day at the International Rowing Centre here.
The shooters, who have been a pale shadow of themselves at the Aoti shooting range, accounted for a bronze with Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Mansher Singh and Zoravar Singh Sandhu finishing third in the men’s team trap event.
With the addition of four medals in the morning session, India’s medal tally climbed to two gold, eight silver and ten bronze. India had finished tenth on the medals table in the last Asian Games in Doha with a tally of 10-17-26.
The 29-year-old Bajrang Lal, an army man, gave India the second gold in the ongoing Games after Pankaj Advani had clinched the yellow metal in billiards on the second day of competitions.
Takhar led the 2000m race from start to finish and rowed his way to the gold with a few lengths of boats to spare in 7 minutes and 4.78 seconds.
The gold, that followed the two silver medals won in the men’s light weight 4s and 4s event yesterday, took the medal haul from rowing to five.
Rajasthan-born Bajrang Lal, who won Asian championship gold last year in Korea and was the pre-event favourite, was followed across the finish line by Chinese Taipei’s Wang Ming Hui (7:07.33), who took the silver, and Iraq’s Haeider Hamarasheid (7:10.10), who won the bronze.
“I won silver in the 2006 Asian Games. I had prepared for four years to fight for the gold medal today. I knew I would make it,” Takhar said.
Later the women’s duo of Pratima Puhana and Pramila Minz, both in their teens, grabbed the pairs bronze in 7 minutes and 47.50 seconds, well behind gold medal winners China, who crossed the finish line far ahead in 7:22.06.
The rowing event came to an end with the Indian men’s eight team clinching the silver, by clocking 5:49.50, way behind hosts China who timed 5:37.44, but well ahead of bronze medal winners Uzbekistan (5:55.96).
The Indians — Lokesh Kumar, Satish Joshi, Saji Thomas, Jenil Krishnan, Anil Kumar, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Manjeet Singh and Girraj Singh — finished more than a boat and half length ahead of the third-placed team.
-PTI
