Indian rowers had an impressive showing at the recently concluded Asian Indoor Rowing Championship and the Asian Junior Rowing Championship that was held in Thailand. The Indians bagged as many as 12 medals, including five silver and seven bronze medals in the event that concluded on Sunday in Pattaya.
Sawan Kalkal (Haryana), Navneet Kaur (Punjab) Pritpa (Indian Universities), and Mayurakshi Mukherjee (Bengal) won the silver in the open mixed fours. In lightweight mixed fours, the team of Yuvraj Singh (Haryana), Sanjukta Dung Dung (Odisha) Tejeswara Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) and Manjula Xess (Odisha) also won the silver.
The Asian Junior meet also witnessed success for the Indians. D. Sai Raju, hailing from Telangana, and Nikhil Goliyan from Haryana claimed the silver medal in the men’s junior pairs category. Akshai Patil (Maharastra), Pramod (Haryana), Lokendra Singh (Uttar Pradesh) and Jaskaran Singh (Punjab) bagged the silver medal in the men’s junior fours category.
Mayurakshi Mukherjee, who is currently pursuing an engineering degree, was the only girl representing West Bengal at the event.
As reported in the Times of India (TOI), Milon, Mayurakshi’s father said, "This was a great achievement by the Indian team. I am also proud of my daughter who bagged a silver in the Open Mixed Four category and a bronze in Women's Doubles. She takes the sport very seriously and is a member of Bengal Rowing Club and West Bengal Rowing Association (WBRA). She was at the RFI National Training Camp in Hyderabad since September 30 before proceeding to Thailand for the event. She arrived in Kolkata on Monday.”
A list of all the medallists are given below:
Asian indoor championship: Light weight women’s doubles: Sanjukta Dung Dung & Manjula Xess Xess – silver.
Women’s doubles: Mayurakshi (Bengal) & Navneet Kaur (Punjab) – bronze.
Junior women’s doubles: Jibolta Chanu and Deepa Maharaja – bronze. Individual: Navneet Kaur (Punjab) – bronze.
Men’s doubles: Parveen (Haryana) and Sawan Kalkal (Haryana) – bronze. Light weight men’s doubles: Paras (Indian Navy) & Tejaswara Reddy (Telangana) - bronze.
Light weight mixed fours: Yuvraj Singh (Haryana), Sanjukta Dung Dung (Odisha), Tejeswara Reddy (AP) and Manjula Xess (Odisha) – silver.
Junior men’s doubles: Sunil & Pramod (Haryana) – bronze. Individual: Maheshwar (Haryana) – bronze.
Open mixed fours: Sawan Kalkal (Haryana). Pritpa (Indian Univ) , Navneet Kaur (Punjab) and Mayurakshi (Bengal) – silver.
Asian Junior meet: Men: Pairs: D.Sai Raju (Telangana) and Nikhil Goliyan (Haryana) – silver.
Fours: Akshai Patil (Maharastra), Lokendra Singh (UP), Pramod (Haryana) and Jaskaran Singh ( Punjab) – silver.
