"Officials Cost Us Gold": Rowers' Big Charge On Federation After Bronze
Rowers vented out their frustration at the Rowing Federation, accusing the officials of forcing them to compete despite a late change to the event schedule.
- Satnam Singh and Salman Khan won bronze in men's double sculls at Asian Games
- Athletes accused Rowing Federation and chief Balaji Maradapa of forcing participation
- Schedule changes compressed rowing events from four days to two due to weather
Indian rowers Satnam Singh and Salman Khan won the bronze medal in the men's double sculls event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Thursday.
But instead of celebrating, the duo vented out their frustration at the Rowing Federation and its chief Balaji Maradapa, accusing the officials of forcing them to compete despite a late change to the event schedule.
Sports website Revsportz has reported that soon after winning the medal, Satnam and Salman Khan openly expressed their anger. They said they had been informed of a change to the event schedule five days earlier and believed the decision had cost India a gold medal. They also alleged that they had been threatened by the federation and effectively pushed into competing.
The athletes complained that due to officials' decision, India missed out on the gold medal.
One athlete told the Revsportz on condition of anonymity: "How can we celebrate a bronze when we know we could have won gold? The gold was taken away from us by what happened over the last few days."
Expressing their frustration with the federation, the atheletes said that they were threatened that they would be sent back if they didn't participate in the event. An athlete also told the website that they would be branded "anti-national" for refusing to participate.
"We couldn't do anything about it because we were told we would be sent back. And if we did not participate, aap jaante ho kya ho jaata (you know what would happen). You know we would be branded anti-national and our careers would be on the line," Revsportz quoted the athlete as saying.
The original entries featured Arvind Singh in the men's single sculls, Navdeep Singh and Kulwinder Singh in the double sculls, and Satnam Singh, Jakar Khan, Salman Khan and Balraj Panwar in the quadruple sculls. Under the revised combinations, Balraj was moved into the single sculls, Salman and Satnam form the double, while Navdeep and Kulwinder were part of the quad.
The allegations have put a big question mark over the Rowing Federation President Balaji Maradapa and his team.
Maradapa, however, said the rowing programme had been compressed from four days into two because of the weather disruption. He said the changes were necessary to prevent athletes from having to race several 2,000m events within a short period.
He added that foreign expert coach Anthony Patterson was consulted and the revised combinations were designed to maximise India's chances of winning gold and silver medals.
The Indian pair of Satnam and Salman stayed in second place until the 1,500m mark before slipping to third in the final 500m, clocking 6:13.25 at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course.
China's Yi Xudi and Yide Nie won the gold medal with a timing of 6:09.37, while Uzbekistan's Pavel Sorin and Mekhrojbek Mamatkulov claimed silver after clocking 6:10.49.
The Indian duo finished 3.88 seconds behind the gold medallists.
Earlier, India narrowly missed out on another rowing medal when Balraj Panwar finished fourth in the men's single sculls final, clocking 6:54.80.