Indian oarsmen gear up for rowing event

New Delhi: Kasam Khan and Inderpal Singh take to the waters off the Sydney Harbour on Sunday to register the Indian challenge in the coxless pair event.

It is for the first time that Indian rowers will feature at the Olympics and they have a tough job on hand. The least they have to do to be in the reckoning for medals is to cover the 2000 metres distance in six minutes and 25 seconds.

''All the major teams are clocking the timing of 6:25 and we have to keep that in mind before we take the field,'' Khan and Singh said. They had clocked 6:59 when they won the semi-final race in Canada to get a chance to represent the country.

The slot in the event was won by Surinder Singh and Johnson Xavier, who won a silver at asian rowing championship at Nagano in Japan in November 1999 by covering the 2000m stretch 7:2.

The team had a three-and-half month training stint in the US. Singh and Khan said that the practice had helped them a lot and they were confident of a good show. Australia, Italy, Germany and China are expected to dominate the event.

UNI