Services pips Army in rowing nationals

Rowers from the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) overcame stiff competition from Army Sports Control Board (ASCB) to win top honours in the men’s section of the 41th Senior National Rowing Championship in Pune on Thursday.

Services ended with 4 gold and 3 silver as against 3 gold and 4 silver by Army. Chandigarh claimed the lone title among state associations.

In the women’s section, Madhya Pradesh (4 gold, 1 silver) claimed the top spot while Kerala (2 gold), Manipur (1 gold, 1 silver) finished behind in the seven-race schedule.

The men’s section was exciting, with the first two finals going the Services and Army’s way respectively.

In the double sculls event Services’ Kulwinder Singh and Karamjit Singh -- 6 minutes 48.9 seconds -- pushed aside the Army duo of Gurtap Singh and Ravi (6:55.2).

Army struck back, with Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram edging out Services’ Sanee Kumar and Iqbal Singh.

The next two races belonged to Services. The coxless fours had Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, Ashish (06:27.3) getting the better of Army’s Lakhveer Singh Harinder Singh, Ghurde Patil, Jasmail Singh (06:29.5).

The next race also went the Services way and took its tally to three as against one by Army. Services claimed its third when the lightweight double sculls duo of Nitin Deol and Ujjwal Kumar Singh (06:48.7) finished ahead of Army’s Arwinder Singh and Rohit (06:51.2).

Army claimed its second title of the day by bagging the quadruple sculls. Ravi, Jaspinder Singh, Gurpartap Singh, Manjeet Kumar combined to clock 06:19.3, which was better than the 06:21.2 clocked by the Services quartet of Ashish Phugat, Jakar Khan, Karamjit Singh and Kulwinder Singh.

The women’s section saw Madhya Pradesh dominating and Maharashtra failing to make an impact with single sculler Khushpreet Kaur of MP (08:42.4) emerging stronger than Mrunmayee Salgaonkar (08:48.7).

Madhya Pradesh also claimed the quadruple sculls, coxless pairs, the double sculls apart from the single sculls.