2023 Asian Games: With 5 Medals, Indian Rowers Match Best-Ever Tally

2023 Asian Games: The class of 2023 has taken India's medal tally in rowing to 28.

The Indian rowing contingent’s campaign at the 2023 Asian Games concluded on Monday, 25 September, with five medals – three bronze and two silver. With this, the class of 2023 has also matched India’s best-ever tally of medals in rowing in any Asian Games campaign.

The first medal arrived in men’s lightweight double sculls, where the pair of Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh – two Indian Army officials hailing from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh respectively – secured a silver medal with their timing of 6:21.18, finishing only behind China.

The second medal arrived in men’s coxless pair, which included the 22-year-old Babu Lal Yadav and the 26-year-old Lekh Ram. They clocked a timing of 6:50.41, finishing third on the podium.

The third and final rowing medal of Day 1 was a silver medal in men’s coxed eight. The team comprised Naresh Kulwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish and Dhananjay Pande, who registered a time of 5:43.01, missing out on gold by merely 2.84s.

Two more medals were added to the rowing tally on Day 2, 25 September. In men’s coxless four, the quartet of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar and Ashish secured the bronze medal with a time of 6:10.81, finishing only 0.77s behind silver medallists China.

The medal haul was completed by the men’s quadruple sculls team of Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Khan and Sukhmeet Singh. Clocking 6:08.61, they finished third.

This happens to be India’s joint-best medal haul in rowing at any Asian Games instalment, matching the tally of five medals of 2010 Guangzhou.

India’s first rowing medal in the Asian Games came way back in 1982, on home soil, where Pravin Uberoi, Mohammed Amin Naik and Deependra Tomar secured a bronze medal in men’s coxed pair.

Till now, India’s rowers have won 28 medals in the Asian Games. Check those out:

India’s 28 Rowing Medals at Asian Games

1982 New Delhi

• Pravin Uberoi, Mohammed Amin Naik, Deependra Tomar (Bronze in men’s coxed pair)

1990 Beijing

• Surinder Singh, Rajender Singh Bhanwala (Bronze in men’s coxless pair)

• Gajendran, Jasbir Singh, Surinder Singh, PM Pathak (Bronze in men’s coxless four)

• Dalbir Singh (Bronze in men’s lightweight single sculls)

• Dalbir Singh, Ramanjit Singh (Bronze in men’s lightweight double sculls)

1994 Hiroshima

• Jagjit Singh, Rajender Prahlad Shilke (Bronze in men’s coxless pair)

1998 Bangkok

• Birbal Singh, Tarlochan Singh, Johnson Xavier, Jagjit Singh (Bronze in men’s coxless four)

• BKK Thankachan, Rampal Singh, Pappi Singh, Kasam Khan (Bronze in men’s lightweight coxless four)

2002 Busan

• Jenil Krishnan, Inderpal Singh, Roshan Lal, Paulose Pandari Kunnel (Bronze in men’s coxless four)

2006 Doha

• Bajrang Lal Takhar (Silver in men’s single sculls)

• Dharmesh Sangwan, Jenil Krishnan, Sukhjeet Singh, Satish Joshi (Silver in men’s coxless four)

• Kiran Yamalachi, Bijender Singh (Bronze in men’s lightweight double sculls)

2010 Guangzhou

• Bajrang Lal Takhar (Gold in men’s single sculls)

• Anil Kumar, Saji Thomas, Ranjit Singh, Jenil Krishnan (Silver in men’s coxless four)

• Anil Kumar, Girraj Singh, Saji Thomas, Lokesh Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Ranjit Singh, Satish Joshi, Jenil Krishnan (Silver in men’s coxed eight)

• Lokesh Kumar, Manjeet Singh, Rajesh Kumar Yadav, Satish Joshi (Silver in men’s lightweight coxless four)

• Pratima Puhan, Pramila Prava Minz (Silver in women’s coxless pair)

2014 Incheon

• Sawarn Singh (Bronze in men’s single sculls)

• Kapil Sharma, Ranjit Singh, Bajrang Lal Takhar, PU Robin, Sawan Kumar Kalkal, Azad Mohammed, Maninder Singh, Davinder Singh, Ahmed Mohammed (Bronze in men’s coxed eight)

• Dushyant Chauhan (Bronze in men’s lightweight single sculls)

2018 Jakarta

• Sawarn Singh, Dattu Baban Bhokanal, Om Prakash, Sukhmeet Singh (Gold in men’s quadruple sculls)

• Dushyant Chauhan (Bronze in men’s lightweight single sculls)

• Rohit Kumar, Bhagwan Singh (Bronze in men’s lightweight double sculls)

2022 Hangzhou

• Arvind Singh, Arjun Lal Jat (Silver in men’s lightweight double sculls)

• Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Khan, Sukhmeet Singh (Bronze in men’s quadruple sculls)

• Babu Lal Yadav, Lekh Ram (Bronze in men’s coxless pair)

• Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish (Bronze in men’s coxless four)

• Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish, Neeraj, Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Dhahanjay Pande (Silver in men’s coxed eight)