Indian rowers reach finals in double sculls

Doha, Dec 5 (UNI) Indian rowing duo of Anil Kumar Mehrolia and Bajranglal Takhar finished second in the second semifinal to book their final berth in the Men's Double Sculls event at the West Bay Lagoon here today.

In Men's Lightweight Double Sculls event too, the Indian duo of Kiran Yalamanchi and Bijender Singh finished second and qualified for the finals.

In Men's Double Sculls semifinals, the Korean pair of Dal Ho Kim and Jung Wook Ham timed 3:31.05 (1:40.73+1:50.32) to win the race, followed by the Indians.

Anil and Bajranglal took time to accelerate and finished the first 500m at 1:44.39, well behind the Koreans. They reduced the margin in the final 500m metre but in the end, that was not enough as they finished second best in the race.

In Final A, the Indian and Korean pairs would be joined by their opponents from China and Uzbekistan.

In the first semifinal of the Men's Lightweight Double Sculls category, the Indian pair of Kiran Yalamanchi and Bijender Singh finished behind the Kazakh duo of Ivan Kharitonov and Artyom Issupov (3:36.62) with a timing of 3:39.02.

UNI HSB AY KN1623