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Indian rowers not hopeful of medals at Olympics
Published on Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 14:43, Updated on Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 13:39 in Sports section
Tags: Beijing Olympics, Rowing , Hyderabad
SHOW TIME: Manjeet Singh and Devender Kumar will take part in the Lightweight doubles sculls event.
Hyderabad: The bugle has been sounded for the Beijing Olympics. It is less than a month to go for the quadrennial event and the Indian contingent is in its final stages of preparation.
The Indian rowing team has already left for Shanghai for three weeks of training before heading for Beijing.
Bajrang Lal Thakar is all set for his biggest challenge so far. He is the reigning Asian Champion in the men's singles sculls and the best bet for India in rowing in Beijing.
Bajrang is no stranger to the big stage. He has bagged silver at the Doha Asian Games but the Olympics are a different ball game and there is a huge gap between him and traditional rowing powerhouses England and Canada.
"European nations will also practice there and I will compare myself with them. I am not hoping for a medal but I will try to finish within the top 10," says Bajrang.
Also making the grade for Beijing is the Lightweight doubles sculls team of Manjeet Singh and Devender Kumar. They too qualified along with Bajrang at the qualifiers in Shanghai in April.
The duo qualified even after their oars went missing leaving them with almost no practice. But setbacks like this have toughened them up.
"In Olympics there will be no problem of this type. We are confident of doing well in the games," Manjeet Singh says.
The Indian team will be based in Shanghai for 20 days for an intense training session ahead of the Olympics.
The only Indian rower at the 2004 Athens Olympics PT Paulose had a forgettable outing. The onus is now on the three rowers to live up to the expectations of the sporting fraternity.
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