Rowers grab four Gold medals at SAF Games

Colombo, Aug 19 (UNI) S Bajrangal Thakar completed a Golden double and it was smooth sailing all the way for the Indian rowers as they swept the event, bagging all four Gold medals up for grabs today in the 10th SAF Games at the University of Moratuwa Course, Bolgoda Lake here.

They would be eyeing to add three more Gold to the tally when the lightweight events resume here on Monday.

The first Gold of the day came through Bajrangal in the Men's Singles Scull open event and the Indian was leading in all three stretches as he clocked 07:24.64 for his Gold.

Pakistani S Muhammad Khan won the Silver with 07:39.42, while Sri Lankan S Sena Fonseca bagged bronze at 08:21.26. In doubles, Bajrangal teamed up with B Sunil Kumar and they improved with every stage, widening the gap against their Pakistani opponents B Maqbool Ali and S Ali Hassan (07:02.66) before topping the event with 06:43.57.

The Sri Lankan pair of B Kamal Chandana Kumarapperuma and SHM Amaradasa won the Bronze, clocking 07:30.99. In the Men's Coxless Pair too, the Indian pair of B Dharmesh Sangwan and S Satnish Joshi (06:49.24) had no real threat from their nearest Pakistani rivals B Syed Shajjar Abbas and S Muhammed Abdeel Sultan (07.00.62) as they rowed to the Gold with consummate ease.

The fourth Gold came from the Coxless Fours Open where the Indian quintet of B Manoj Augustine, Gurdarshan Singh, Sukhjeet Singh and S Jenil Krishnan were always in control of the proceedings and they timed 06:19.17 to pocket the Gold, ahead of their Pakistani rivals, who clocked 06:30.23.

Sri Lanka stood third in the event.

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