Pune: Has India shot itself in its foot by stopping sure-shot-medal women rowers from boarding the flight to Aichi-Nagoya?The government’s overzealous attitude towards pruning the Indian contingent for the Asian Games next month has not been confined only to tennis, but to rowing as well.The women’s rowing teams of Suman Devi & Diljot Kaur in pairs and Bharati Devi Oinam & Priya Devi Thangjam in quadruple scull have fallen victim to the sports ministry’s rigid and unreasonable stance of sticking to selection criteria based on past results and ignoring recent form and potential backed by sports science.“The women’s 2-minus (pairs) team have gone better than the medal timings of the last Asian Games. Whatever timings the government set, they achieved it nowhere other than at the World Cup,” national federation (RFI) president Balaji Maradappa told The Times of India.In Hangzhou, the women’s pairs bronze was clinched by South Korea’s Kim Ha-yeong and Lee Soo-bin in 7 minutes 51.14 seconds. Suman and Diljit clocked 7:36.17 in Final C at World Cup 3 in Lucerne, Switzerland, in June.On the other hand, Bharati and Priya won bronze at the Asian Rowing Cup in Chungju, Korea, in April and also at an international regatta in Slovenia in June. A medal in a continental or international championship in the past year is another selection criterion set by the ministry.Balaji said that the rowers across boats were being trained to peak at the Asian Games and as such they would be only recording faster timings in the coming races.Besides, with entries restricted to only ten events per nation, India’s chances were brighter in the pairs, he added.“There is a lot of sports science behind the training methods now. We (women’s pairs) were only doing 28-30 rating (stroke speed) and fell short of Japan only by 0.39 seconds (in the heats in World Cup 3),” Balaji said.“As our rating goes up to 34, our times will only get faster. The aim is to peak at the Asian Games. The pairs have improved by 20 seconds and the doubles scullers by 14 seconds.“If a team (other than Suman/Diljot) stands on the podium with a medal round their neck in pairs, it is India’s medal,” he asserted.
