Pune: The men’s lightweight double scull duo of Lakshay and Ujjwal Kumar Singh created history as they bagged India’s first ever gold at World Rowing Cup in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Saturday.The pair clocked 6 minutes 26.09 seconds to clinch the coveted medal ahead of strong competition from Hong Kong’s San Tung Lam and Tik Lun Chan (6:27.14) and the Netherlands’ Erik Van Eijck Van Heslinga and Fredrik Ploeg (6:27.36) in the third and final World Cup of the season at the picturesque Rotsee Lake.India had previously won three bronze at World Cups, one in women’s quadruple in 2009 and two in para pairs in 2019 and 2022.“A little (proud), but no compliment for them yet,” Antony Patterson, the Australian head coach, commented light-heartedly with his wards standing beside him during a post-race interview.“I don’t think Hong Kong has ever been beaten and the Dutch are a strong team, too. Lightweight is always hard. In these conditions, it’s even harder,” he added.Balaji Maradappa, president of the Rowing Federation of India, put the achievement in context.“It is very big for our mindset. Today we beat a European team and Hong Kong, who are a very strong sculling nation. We have been winning medals in Asia, now every Indian rower will believe we can beat the Europeans too,” Maradappa told The Times of India.The gold medal was even more remarkable considering the logistical issues the rowers had faced prior to their departure to Switzerland, but more so for the fact that they are yet to peak.“If anyone had seen the data, our rowers were only going at 96 percent, whereas other teams were at almost 100 percent,” Maradappa said.“We were rowing at 36 strokes per minute and others were at 40. Our target is the Asian Games (in September-October) in Japan, where we have to peak. Our training has been designed keeping that in mind.“And this is also our first race of the season. China and other teams have already done 10 races.”That was as a result of the Indian contingent missing out on World Cup 2 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, earlier this month because of a delay in getting a visa.“Our passports were stuck at the Bulgarian embassy till last Thursday and we had only five days left to get the Swiss visa. We could manage it all only thanks to the intervention from the external affairs and the sports ministries,” Maradappa said.
