Day 1 of the Paris Olympics 2024 for India got underway as India’s lone rowing athlete, Balraj Panwar, had a decent outing. Balraj Panwar finished in the 4th spot in rowing heats and narrowly missed out on a direct spot in the quarter finals.
The top 3 individuals qualify for the next round and the remaining athletes play the repechage round. Earlier, the rule in rowing was that the 4th best performer in terms of timings, qualifies for the next round. This athlete was often labelled as “lucky loser”.
If this case scenario was applicable, then India’s Balraj would have directly earned a spot in the next round. However, he will now be playing the repechage round, which provides athletes another crack at finding a place in the next round.
New Zealand’s Thomas Mackintosh finished first in the heats with a timing of 6:55.92 followed by Stefanos Ntouskos from Greece, who logged a timing of 7:01.79.
Egypt’s Abdelhalek Elbanna finished in the 3rd spot with a timing of 7:05.06 and was followed by India’s Balraj Panwar, who finished with a timing of 7:07.11.
It was a valiant effort from the Indian rower as he put mounting pressure of the Egyptian rower, who was just in front of him and the difference of 2 seconds speaks volumes about how close things were in the race.
Balraj Panwar had finished in the 4th position in Asian Games 2022
In the Hangzhou Asian Games 2022, Balraj Panwar had finished in the 4th position. He also had bagged the bronze medal at the Asian and Oceanic Olympic Qualification Regatta in Korea.
The 25-year-old rower from Kaimla would be hoping to qualify to the next round via the repechage round. Bajrang Panwar has trained under 2008 Olympian Bajrang Lal Takhar and National Coach of India, Ismail Bag.
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