The Indian rowers will face a tough test when they battle it out with other countries at the Asian Regatta scheduled to be held at Chungju, South Korea, from April 25 to 29. The tournament, which is a qualifying event for the London Olympics Games will see India locking horns with the likes of Hong Kong, Iran, Kazakhstan and China.
India will be fielding a team comprising six men and four women. “We have been training at the Hussainsagar Lake. We looked closely at some of the prospects at the recently-concluded Nationals in Hyderabad. I am pretty confident that this team will come out triumphant and grab spots for the London Olympics,” said Ismail Baig, national coach.
While the team for the Korean meet is yet to be announced officially, it is learnt that Hyderabad’s Manjeet Singh and Shokinder Tomar will feature in the Indian team. Manjeet, who represents the artillery centre in Golconda, was part of the lightweight men’s four team which won a silver at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. Shokinder is part of the EME Centre.
India will be eyeing berths in four categories that will feature at the Olympics — the men’s single scull, men’s lightweight double scull, women’s single scull and women’s lightweight double scull. “There are six spots in men’s singles scull category, three each in men’s doubles scull and women’s doubles scull and five in women’s singles scull for the Asian continent region,” Ismail pointed out.
“There will be stiff competition from countries such as China and Iran. In the past we have seen that our performances go a few notches higher when faced with tougher opponents,” the coach added.