India's lone rower at this year's Rio Olympics is Dattu Bhokanal. The 25-year-old from Talegaon in Maharashtra qualified for the global event by winning a silver in the men’s single sculls event at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta held at Chung Ju in South Korea last year.
India have no team in any of the team rowing events or multiple sculling events pinning all of our hopes on the lone army man. Dattu Bhokanal's event 'single scull' is a form of rowing that involves one person in a single 'scull' who utilises two oars on either side to propel himself forward.
Rowers use the oars – or a single oar in multiple-scull events – by angling the blade at the end of it – which is submerged in water – and repeatedly chalking out an 8-like pattern in the air. This helps in thrusting the scull forward. Rowers have their backs against the finish line and row in an anticlockwise direction to push themselves forward.
Apart from the event Mr Bhokanal is partaking in, the Olympics also recognise five other categories spanning multiple crew member-restrictions.
Sculling Events:
Single Sculls
As explained earlier, a single scull event is all about one rower and his ability to synchronise and efficiently move his scull forward with two oars on either side. The gold medal winner from the 2012 London Olympics was New Zealand's Mahe Drysdale who put in an impressive 6:57.82 to beat Czech Republic's Ondej Synek who clocked a 6:59.47.
Dattu Bhokanal's time that won him the Silver in the 16th Asian Rowing Championships was a 7:07.49 – a time he'll need to drastically improve for him to stay in the Olympics past the first round heats that are to be held on 6th August.
Much like the other formats in the sport, the single scull event is a race between a maximum of six rowers who compete with each other on a straight of water measured at two kilometres. There are a series of heats conducted to determine the quality of the rower.
The top three rowers from each heat progress to the quarterfinal event with the others banished to the repechages. The top two from each of the repechage events qualify for the quarter-finals with the others heading to the E/F semi-finals – the least valuable semi-finals.
In the quarter-final rounds, the top three from each round qualify for the A/B semifinals while the bottom three head into the C/D semifinals. Six semifinals will be held with two for each of A/B, C/D and E/F. For each semifinal race, the top three boats move on to the better of the two finals, while the bottom three boats qualify for the lesser of the two finals possible. For example, a second-place finish in an A/B semifinal would result in advancement to the A final.
The A finals is the medal round and ranking up to sixth in the world. Finals B will be from 7th to 12th and so on.
For Dattu Bhokanal to finish with a medal in the event, he'd have to finish in the top four of his heat, top three of his quarterfinal, and top three of his A/B semifinal and finally top three in the A finals.
Double Sculls
The double sculls event in the Olympics is similar to the single scull event but with two rowers who will still have two oars on either side of them. As the number of rowers on the scull increases, the more the need is to be synchronised. Efficiently moving the scull forward is of tantamount importance to ensure the two of them can keep performing consistently over the two kilometres distance.
The format for the event is much like the single sculls event involving heats, repechages, semifinals and two finals. There are no quarter-finals in the double sculls event. There are three heats held with heat 1 consisting of five pairs while heat 2 and heat 3 competed with four pairs.
The top three in all three heats progress to semi-finals. The rest head into the repechages where the top three also go on to qualify for the semifinals. The top three from each semifinal stand a chance to win a medal by qualifying for the A finals. The rest head into the B finals solely for the sake of world ranking.
Quadruple Sculls
If you thought double sculls needed synchronising, the quadruple sculls event needs even more so. The event requires four rowers on a scull using a pair of aors on either side to push themselves forward. Germany won the gold medal in the last Olympics beating the Croatian quartet by 2.3 seconds – a fairly wide margin in this sport.
The rules for the quadruple sculls event are the same as the two aforementioned ones. The format for the event mirrors the one used for the double sculls event.
Sweep Events:
Unlike sculling which involves the rower to use two oars with one hand each, sweep events involve a minimum of two rowers who use one oar each with both hands. The oars on either side of the boat. One rower will be in charge of the oar submerged on the stroke side - rower's right-hand side – while the other will in charge of the one on the bow side – or the rower's left-hand side.
There are two recognised type of sweep events in the Olympics but the international association stopped recognising multiple events of one form in 1992 – the one that involved the usage of a coxswain – or cox for short – who is another member on the boat in charge of steering as well as motivating and checking the sync between the rowers from time to time. The only sweep events recognised by the Olympics are the coxless events as well as the coxed eight event.
Coxless Pair
This event needs the boat to have two rowers who move forward by synchronising the movement of their independent oars on either side of the boat. Given that this is a coxless event, there is no coxswain to guide the two of them as they compete to finish the 2-kilometre range.
The coxless event is said to be one of the toughest events with the two rowers having to time everything to perfection: the shift of weight, the submerging of the oar and the extracting of the blade – or the tip of the oar – to ensure that they make the most efficient strides in moving forward.
The format for the coxless pair is designed around the 13 pairs who submit a participatory bid before registration deadline day. They have three heats. The first heat will have five while heat two and heat three will have four. Top three from each heat progress to the semi-finals of the event.
The rest are relegated down to the repechages where they still stand a chance to make it to the semifinals. The top three form the repechage makes it to the semifinals. Given only one pair is kicked out of the tournament - the last in the repechage - the remaining twelve pairs make it two semifinals.
The top three in each semifinal makes it to the A finals while the rest six make it to the B finals. Medals can be won only in the A finals. Everyone else partakes for the sake of world rankings.
Coxless Four
The coxless four event involves the use of four rowers on a single boat who will have oars on alternative stroke and bow sides. The rowers have to ensure they sync with each other perfectly to ensure they make the most of each swing.
The event's format is the exact same as the coxless pair event where only one of the thirteen quartets fail to make it to the finals of the event.
Coxed Eight
The coxed eight event is possible the most entertaining rowing event in the Olympics. The boat has nine members on board – eight rowers and one coxswain. The latter sits at the far end of the boat guiding the rowers to ensure they're on the right track and ensuring that they keep up optimum performance throughout the two kilometres.
The tournament format for the coxed eight event includes the participation of only eight teams. There are two heats with four teams each. The top team from each heat go straight into the A finals while the others six teams take part in the repechage event.
From the repechage event, the top four teams head into the A finals while the other two teams take part in the B finals – which will only have two teams fighting for world ranking slots.
Germany have pretty much dominated this event over the past few Olympics and will fight to keep the same going in Rio but will face competition from the other best teams including Canada, Great Britain and the United States.
