The Indian men's team comprising Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh bagged the gold medal in the men's quadruple sculls event on Friday.
Indian rowers redeemed themselves in the ongoing 18th edition of the Asian Games as they clinched a gold and two bronze in Jakarta on Friday.
The Indian men's team comprising Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh bagged the gold medal in the men's quadruple sculls event. The rowers clocked 6:17:13 to win the medal. Indonesia and Thailand settled for silver and bronze medals, respectively.
After a disappointing Day 1 of rowing, the Indians were happy to win the country medals eventually. "We all sat together last night and changed our strategy," Sawarn told WION's Digvijay Singh Deo soon after the victory on Friday. "We made sure we followed our coach's strategy. Our coach had cried the last time when we could manage just the bronze, but this time he had tears of joy I'd told him last time that I'm only going to row to win from now."
Sukhmeet, participating in his first international event, was ecstatic. "I'm fortunate to have won a gold in my very first international competition, that too in the prestigious Asian Games. I'm grateful for getting to team-up with the best rowers of the country," he said.
Bhokanal, it was revealed, suffered from fever the previous night. The senior pro reflected on how he fought through difficulties to ensure a gold medal for his country. "I struggled to manage at night. Yesterday, too, I had prepared enough to comfortably win the gold. The coach had made me train in a way that. However, I got into trouble after some water went into my nose. But I wanted to wipe away my coach's tears and win gold today. It's a proud moment for the country that I didn't give up even if it meant I risk my life," he said.
Bhokanal even believes Indian rowing is taking rapid strides and the Olympic prospects are looking brighter than ever.
Coach Ismail Baig, however, struggled to forget the disappointment of the first day and wasn't an entirely pleased man. "I wouldn't say the pain of the first day has been erased, but these boys have surely soothed the wounds else I wouldn't have been able to return home happily. It was sad that we missed out narrowly in all four events yesterday. I'm their coach and they're all my children. Only these four are happy right now but there are 10-12 more who aren't. As a coach, I feel their pain," he said.
Watch the interview HERE
In lightweight double sculls rowing event, the Indian team of Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Das won bronze after clocking 7:04.61. Japan's Miyaura Masayuki and Takeda Masahiro bagged the gold with a timing of 7:01:70, while the South Korean team of Kim Byunghoon and Lee Minhyuk settled for silver with a timing of 7:03.22.
In the same event, Indian rower Dushyant won the bronze medal. However, India's men's lightweight eight team narrowly missed out on a medal as they finished at the fourth spot in the men's lightweight eight-finals.
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 "(R - L) Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh after their triumph on Friday")
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