GURPREET KAUR packs a lot of power in a small frame. The 17-year-old Chandigarh lass drew attention by winning the single sculls event in rowing in the National Games at the scenic Sukhna Lake.
The cherubic Gurpreet had come into the focus by winning the silver in the junior section of the Asian championship in China recently. By defeating the 23-year-old Jincymol Varghese twice over the 2-kilometre stretch, the Chandigarh girl established her credentials beyond doubt.
Hailing from a humble background, Gurpreet promises to live up to her potential, with sheer determination and a cheerful outlook.
Jincymol, the Kerala ace, who had won the bronze in the senior section in the same Asian championship, was able to defy Gurpreet in the sprint event, but was perhaps tired after the efforts in the double sculls in the traditional race spanning two kilometres.
Overall, Kerala's domination was also checked by Andaman and Nicobar which captured two of the gold medals in the sprint events. Thus, Kerala had to be content with a collection of five golds and three silvers.
"Our girls do not have as much experience as the Kerala team, which practises as one unit. We do not have quality boats and oars. Still I am happy with our performance. We won two golds, two silvers and two bronzes this time, as compared to three silvers and three bronzes last time. The improvement is encouraging", said the coach of the Andaman and Nicobar team, Easudasan.
The fact that the team had to travel four days by ship and three days by train, told on the performance, but the island girls fought with determination to scare Kerala.
In the men's section, it was a foregone conclusion that the Services would dominate. In the event, it did, though it could not sweep all the eight gold medals at stake.
The Punjab foursome of Gurnam Singh, Jagtar Singh, Kulwinder Singh and Jarmanjeet Singh provided a fitting finale, beating the Services team of Ajad Singh, Binu Kurian, Harjeet Singh and M. Rehman by a good 10 seconds in the coxless fours event.
Moreover, Services also had to share the coxless pairs gold with Andhra Pradesh in the sprint event, spanning 500 metres.
Saji Thomas and K. Jenil hogged the limelight after a photo finish with Surender Singh and Rampal Singh of the Services, as the two teams timed at 1:44.15.
"Our scullers are very good. P. T. Poulose and D. B. Ratheesh had none to match them as they won the 2-kilometre and 500-metre events", said the coach of the Services team, Subedar Mastan Singh.
In fact, the rest of the pack was literally scared of facing the Services scullers, as was evident from the manner in which Nardev Singh of Punjab and Gurpreet Singh Dhillon of West Bengal tried to lose their race, in a bid to avoid joining the same group as Services in the semifinals.
It was a poor joke when the two rowers literally stopped before the finish, hoping that the other would err in crossing the line. It was no wonder that both were disqualified.
Overall, the rowers went about their task with remarkable focus, despite the problems of food, water and accommodation in the low-budget scheme of things.
It was a commendable effort by the technical officials to have run 93 races in the sprint event and 82 races in the traditional longer event, in five days.
The President of the Rowing Federation of India, Mr. K. P. Singh Deo, was naturally proud of the achievement, especially running 51 races on the opening day.
The results (finals):Men:2000m race: Single sculls: 1. P. T. Poulose (Serv) 8:19.17; 2. Saji Thomas (AP) 8:23.55; 3. Baskar Reddy (Kar) 8:30.26. Double sculls: 1. Services (Narender Singh, P. Rajneesh) 7:37.55; 2. Punjab 7:38.28; 3. Chandigarh 7:38.81. Coxless pairs: 1. Services (Surender Singh, Rampal Singh) 7:31.20; 2. Andhra Pradesh 7:37.77; 3. Karnataka 7:42.10. Coxless fours: 1. Punjab (Gurnam Singh, Jagtar Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Jarmanjeet Singh) 6:55.96; 2. Services 7:04.65; 3. Chandigarh 7:11.85.
Sprints 500m: Single sculls: 1. D. B. Ratheesh (Serv) 1:51.34; 2. Baskar Reddy (Kar) 1:56.05; 3. Nirmal Singh (Punj) 2:03.80. Double sculls: 1. Services (R. K. Pillai, Narender Singh) 1:44.45; 2. Punjab 1:46.96; 3. West Bengal 1:48.04; Coxless pairs: 1. Services (Surender Singh, Rampal Singh) and Andhra Pradesh (Saji Thomas, K. Jenil) 1:44.15; 3. Chandigarh 1:52.41. Coxless fours: 1. Services (Rampal Singh, Binu Kurian, Harjeet Singh, M. Rehman) 1:35.76; 2. Karnataka 1:36.33; 3. Andhra Pradesh 1:43.71.
Women: 2,000m: Single sculls: 1. Gurpreet Kaur (Chd) 9:04.66; 2. Jincymol Varghese (Ker) 9:17.32; 3. Wahida Rehman (Mani) 9:26.68. Double sculls: 1. Kerala (M. S. Malini, Jincymol Varghese) 8:32.92; 2. Orissa 8:42.47; 3. Andaman and Nicobar 9:16.43. Coxless pairs: 1. Kerala (Julee Varghese, R. Sobini) 8:48.02; 2. Chandigarh 9:06.04; 3. Orissa 9:37.59.
Coxless fours: 1. Kerala (Malini Baroi, R. Sobini, Julee Varghese, A. Soniyamma) 8:02.02; 2. Andaman and Nicobar, 8:11.21; 3. Orissa 8:13.63.
Sprints 500m: Single sculls: 1. Jincymol Varghese (Ker) 2:11.16; 2. Gurpreet Kaur (Chd) 2:13.35; 3. Elizabeth Henry (A&N) 2:26.67. Double sculls: 1. Andaman and Nicobar (Manjula Rai, Suchitra Rani Mandal) 2:06.26; 2. Kerala 2:08.12; 3. Orissa 2:13.69. Coxless pairs: 1. Kerala (Julee Varghese, R. Sobini) 2:08.55; 2. Orissa 2:12.18; 3. Andaman and Nicobar 2:16.93. Coxless fours: 1. Andaman and Nicobar (Manjula Rai, Elizabeth Henry, Purnalaxmi Roy, Mary Monica Minj) 1:57.26; 2. Kerala 2:00.82; 3. Orissa 2:05.69.
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