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25-year-old Indian rower Balraj Panwar finished third and won the bronze medal in men’s single sculls at the Asian and Oceanian Rowing Olympic Qualification Regatta in Chungju, the Republic of Korea on Sunday. This is India's first Paris Olympics Quota in rowing.
Balraj finished with a timing of 7:01.27
With five Paris Olympics quotas available from the event, there was a fight to not finish last. The A-Final was won by Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev with a timing of 6:59.46. Indonesia’s Memo Memo finished just behind him with 6:59.74 to finish second while Balraj finished third with 7:01.27.
Other than these three, Hong Kong China’s Hin Chun Hiu and Azerbaijan’s Shakhboz Kholmurzaem won the Paris Olympics quotas for their respective countries as well.
Other than Balraj, Tokyo Olympics star Arvind Singh along with Ujjwal Kumar finished third in the lightweight double sculls. However, they could not win any quota since there were only two quotas available for the event. Arvind, who had Arjun Lal Jat at the Asian Games last year, was forced to partner with Ujjwal Kumar after Arjun suffered a back injury.
They finished third with a timing of 6:30.11, just behind Japan and Uzbekistan.
Along with them, Salman Khan and Nitin Deol, India's men's doubles sculls pair won a Gold medal at the Asian Rowing Cup, which is simultaneously happening with the Asian and Oceanian Rowing Olympic Qualification Regatta.