Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh won silver in the lightweight men's double sculls at the Asian Games 2023.
Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh won a silver medal for India in the men's lightweight doubles sculls event in rowing at the Asian Games 2023 on Sunday. The Indian duo finished second with a timing of 6:28.18s behind China's Junjie Fan and Man Sun, who won gold with 6:23.16s. (Schedule | Medal Tally | Full Coverage | Sports News)
The Uzbekistan pair of Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroliyev bagged the bronze clocking 6:33.42s.
The Indian pair's silver medal triumph is even more special, especially since Arvind had a serious back injury for the last two months, which had hampered their training severely.
So who are the Indian pair? Here's all you need to know about the silver medalists at the Asian Games 2023 rowing.
Arjun Lal Jat
Arjun belongs from a small village in Nayabas of Churu district in Rajasthan. His family are into farming. Arjun joined the Indian Army in 2017 and came across rowing there. He says that he had limited knowledge about rowing as a sport until Bajranglal Takhar, 2010 gold medalist at the Asian Games for rowing, introduced him and Arvind Singh to the sport.
Arjun Lal Jat has also served in the Rajputana Rifles regiment of the Indian Army as a junior commissioned officer and is in training at the Army Rowing Node in Pune. Due to his over weight after Tokyo Olympics, Arjun couldn't compete with his partner Arvind at the 2021 Asian Championships.
Arvind Singh
Along with his partner, Arvind Sing too hails from a farming background. Hailing from a village in Khabra of Bulandshahr district in Uttar Pradesh, Arvind was introduced to rowing by Takhar whilst he was serving in the Army. Prior to this, Arvind had interest in cricket and athletics. Arvind had given a thought about moving from disciplines from double sculls after his gold medal triumph in the single sculls at the 2021 Asian Championships in Thailand.
He followed that up with another single sculls gold at the 2022 National Championships in Pune. He had thought about switching disciplines from double sculls after claiming gold in the lightweight single sculls at the 2021 Asian Championships in Thailand and another single sculls gold at the 2022 National Championships in Pune.