India performed excellently and won six medals at the 2019 Open International Canoe Sprint Competition held at Upper Lake on Sunday. Paddlers Albert Raj, Sunil Singh, Ching Ching Singh, Atul Kumar, Sunny Kumar, Gaurav Tomar, Sunil Singh, Badal Kumar and Ajit Kumar won medals on day one and brought laurels to the country in the international event.
The competition is being organised by Indian Kayaking and Canoeing Association in partnership with Dunst Nolan. Five different events were held on day one of the competition. Three events of kayaking were organised while two of canoe were held.
The first event was K1: Men’s 1000m final. Ruben Manuel of Portugal won the gold medal, Albert Raj of India won the silver medal and Chung Chung of Hong Kong won the bronze medal. The second event was C1: Men’s 1000m final. Sunil Singh of India won the gold medal in this event, Kaun Chieh of Chinese Taipei won silver medal and Shahriyo Daminov of Tajikistan had to satisfy with bronze medal.
The third event was K4: Mix 200m Final. The Portuguese team won gold medal, team India (Ching Ching Singh, Soniya Devi, Atul Kumar, Rajina Kiro) clinched silver medal in this event and the bronze medal was also won by the Indian team (Captain Singh, Anjali Singh, Sushila Chanu, Ajatshatru Sharma).
The fourth event was K2: Men’s 1000m final and the Portuguese team (Ruben Manuel, Igor Samuel) won this event, while Indian team (Atul Kumar, Sunny Kumar) had to satisfy with the silver medal. The last event which was conducted on Saturday was C2 Men’s 1000m and team India (Gaurav Tomer, Sunil Singh) won this event, Kazakhstan was second and again team India (Badal Kumar, Ajit Kumar) won bronze medal in this event. This indeed was a proud moment for all the water sports lovers of Bhopal as the competition has been organised in the capital city.