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India's lone rower for Rio caught in RFI-ARN tussle; denied World Cup participation

dna has learnt that the RFI has stopped its six-member team, of which Bhokanal was also part of, from participating in World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland, from June 17 to 19 and World Rowing Tour in Salzkammergut, Austria, from June 25 to July 3.

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Coming from a waterless Talegaon village in Nashik, Dattu Bhokanal's qualification for Rio Olympics is nothing but a fairytale.

Being the lone Indian rower to qualify for this year's Olympics, the 24-year-old was expected to get all the facilities in order to make his mark during the Games. However, he has been caught in the ongoing tussle between the Rowing Federation of India (RFI) and the Army Rowing Node (ARN).

dna has learnt that the RFI has stopped its six-member team, of which Bhokanal was also part of, from participating in World Rowing Cup III in Poznan, Poland, from June 17 to 19 and World Rowing Tour in Salzkammergut, Austria, from June 25 to July 3.

This came after Bhokanal recently wrote a letter to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) without the knowledge of the RFI, in which he demanded his Army coach Paul Singh Mokha to accompany him during a training-cum-competition stint in Miami, US, and then to the Rio Games.

It must be mentioned here that RFI has named chief national coach Ismail Baig to go with Bhokanal to a different training stint in Varese, Italy.

Though, one could well understand that Bhokanal was punished for his 'demand', but RFI has no answer why other rowers are being deprived of participating in two prestigious international events for no fault of theirs?

The RFI is miffed with Bhokanal pledging his support to the Army, which he joined in 2012 and is currently posted in Pune as Hawaldar. RFI's point is that Bhokanal trained under Baig since 2014 after joining the national camp in Hyderabad, and even won silver in 2015 Asia/Oceanic Olympic Qualification tournament in Regatta in South Korea under his guidance and how Bhoka can claim success for his qualification.

Bhokanal is currently training in Pune under Mokha.

It was his second-place finish at the Regatta qualifiers last year that Bhokanal qualified for Rio in the men's singles sculls category.

It has also been learnt that RFI did stop Bhokanal earlier this month from participating in the Asian Rowing Cup in Tehran after he wrote this letter. But the other members of the squad were sent to this four-day championships without India's best rower.

The bad blood between the RFI and Bhokanal had started much earlier before his letter to the SAI emerged. The bone of contention was the two separate training programmes submitted by RFI and ARN to SAI for Bhokanal's Olympic preparation, along with the names of coaches.

According to the RFI's proposal, the federation wanted him to train in Varesey from June 21 to July 20 under Baig and travel to Rio directly from there. The ARN, on the other hand, submitted the proposal of his training in Miami for the same duration with Mokha as his coach. The Army's contention was that Miami's time zone would be similar to that of Rio and the rowing facilities are much better than Varese.

SAI immediately rejected the proposal of RFI and approved the Army's programme. The RFI has informed SAI about the development. The SAI has asked the RFI to stop the national camp for the World Cup in Hyderabad and return the entire money spent on the camp.

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