With doordie chant, India row to gold
Indian rowers emerge triumphant in extreme conditions to bring home gold medal in quadruple sculls and bronze in single sculls
PALEMBANG: When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. On Friday, with a Sikh Regiment slogan ringing in their ears, the tough got rowing. “Karenge yah marenge,” they said and then walked the do-or-die talk all the way to a gold and a bronze.
Indian rowers, all but one of the 34 at the Asian Games are also soldiers, were willing to give it their all, stretch every sinew to win a medal at the Jakabaring Lake here. That Dushyant had given it his all on way to bronze in lightweight men’s singles sculls was evident when he collapsed at the medal ceremony and had to be stretchered to the medical room with high blood pressure, exhaustion and dehydration.
As the Haryana boy recuperated, barely a few meters away, the men’s quadruple sculls team celebrated its win, clinching India’s maiden gold in the event and making history after warding off Indonesia’s challenge .
Sawarn Singh, Bhokanal Dattu Baban, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh pushed themselves to the limit --- and beyond --- to ensure India its second gold in Asian Games rowing history. Bajrang Lal Takhar was the first, in the single sculls at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.
The morale was down and the atmosphere in the Indian camp depressing after none of the rowers could make it to the podium, despite huge expectations, on Thursday. But they had come charged up on Friday.
The 2000m race was a challenge --- a punishment, actually --in extreme humidity. On Friday, they were drunk on patriotism and that can often make sportspersons do wonders. “Bharat mata ke liye karna tha (Had to do it for Mother India)”, said Sawarn. Soon after the quadruple team crossed the ‘imaginary’ finishing line, chants of ‘Bharat mata ki jai’and‘karenge ya marenge’ rent the air.
It wasn’t any ordinary day for the quartet; it was the fruition of the dreams their near and dear ones had seen.
Bhokanal Dattu Baban, who finished last in lightweight single sculls on Thursday, had promised his mother Asha a medal before she passed away. “I had a promise to keep. I was confident of gold in quadruple sculls as we had a very strong team,” said the rower from Nashik district.
Sawarn too had dreamt of gold but a back problem laid him low after the 2014 Incheon Games bronze in singles sculls.
The race was dramatic. The Indians were trailing the home favourites till the 1000m metre mark. The push came somewhere in the next 500 metres and India took a two-second lead. With the Indonesians not letting up, it came down to the wire and India won gold with a timing of 6:17.13 min, just 3.45 seconds ahead of the home team.