Senior National Rowing: Over 500 rowers set to compete

PUNE: With a little over eight months remaining for the 2023 Hangzhou Asian Games, Indian rowers are all set to chop the waters at Army Rowing Node in the College of Military Engineering (CME) campus when the 40th Senior and 24th Open Sprint National Rowing Championship unfolds from Wednesday.

India's only international-standard rowing facility will be the theatre to host over 500 rowers from 25 affiliated states and units striving to make a mark at the Rowing Federation of India's blue-ribband event.

Organising Secretary, Col. R Ramakrishnan said, "We are glad to host the creme de la creme rowers of our country. As a true believer of 'the best deserving the best,' ARN with the facility is always out to support." Col. Ramakrishnan's thoughts thus align with the reason as to exactly why ARN are playing hosts to back-to-back Nationals.

The participants for this edition include a host of Olympians, Asian and National champions. The main highlight, however, will be 2020 Tokyo Olympics duo Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh, who became the first double scullers from India to reach the semifinals.

The pair recently clinched gold at the 2022 Asian Rowing Championship in Thailand. Likewise, other medallists from the Asian Championship which include; Sukhmeet Singh and Jakar Khan (Double sculls, Silver), Jasveer Singh, Iqbal Singh, Akshat Tanwar, Charanjeet Singh (Light Weight Coxless Fours, Silver); Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish also line up for starting orders.

RFI Secretary General, MV Sriram, explained that the championship will also serve to keenly observe the performances of the probable Indian rowers stationed at ARN.

"Our preparations with a core group of 25-30 rowers began long back," he explained and explained, "we began our preparations in accordance with the initial dates of the Asian Games which, initially, was scheduled for 2022 (September-October)."

Sriram added, "we had one camp at Bhopal as well. But yes, the championship will be a pitching ground to add or delete from the group." "Looking forwards to some excellent rowing in this championship from the best in India," he explained.

The championship will be held over 2000 meters and 500 meters for both men and women respectively. For the men, the events are single sculls, double sculls, coxless pairs, coxless fours (all in 2000m and 500m). Open double sculls, coxless fours and coxed eights will be held in only 2000m for the men rowers. The first two events will be for civilians only.

Similarly, for women, single sculls, double sculls, coxless pairs, and coxless fours will be held in 2000m and 500m. Double sculls mixed event (500m) and para-men single sculls (200m and 500m) will also be organised.

The ARN, which became operational in 2009, will be hosting the Senior Nationals for the fourth time. Back in 2014, ARN hosted the inaugural Championship, then the 37th edition in 2018 which was followed by the 39th edition.

The championship for the second consecutive year has received a shot in the arm with the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) stepping in to co-host the event with multiple support.