Rowers also vaccinated as part of Army drive before Japan qualifiers

NEW DELHI: All athletes, both working with the Indian Army as well as all those in camps in the Army premises, are being administered Covid-19 vaccines. Just last month, this newspaper reported about archers receiving their first vaccine jab and now rowers have been inoculated too. However, women rowers in Bhopal have not been inoculated as they are training outside Army facilities. The national rowing camp is being held at the Army Rowing Node, Pune and the men’s team that will participate in the Asian and Oceania Continental Olympic Qualification Regatta to be held in Tokyo from May 5 to 7 have all been vaccinated.

All the male rowers received their second dose early on Saturday. Jakar Khan (single sculls), Arjun Lal Jat (double sculls), Arvind Singh (double sculls), Sunil Attri (single and double sculls) and Shantanu Kumar (para) in the men’s half have been vaccinated along with the national coach Ismail Baig. All the 12 rowers who are part of the national camp and the remaining two coaches inside the camp will also be vaccinated this month as part of the vaccination drive of the Army.

The female rowers are in Bhopal and they have, however, not received any jab. The Bhopal camp is run at the SAI centre. The female rowers who will vie for qualification are Khushpreet Kaur (single sculls), Vindhya Sankat (double sculls), Rukmani Dangi (double sculls), and Sona Keer (single and double sculls). “All our rowers have been vaccinated and that is a very good step being taken by the Army especially as it comes before such a crucial Olympic qualification tournament,” RFI president Rajlaxmi Singh Deo informed this daily. Regarding the team selection, eyebrows were raised when former Olympians and Asian Games medallists Dattu Bhokanal and Sawarn Singh were not included in the line-up.

According to RFI, Dattu was not regular during practice and he left the camp in November all of a sudden after which he was not allowed inside. The young upcoming rowers have shown marked improvement and the coaches are happy with their progress. However, Dattu is miffed and has written to the federation twice asking for the reason why he was not being allowed to rejoin the camp.

“I was having personal problems and had to leave. Now they are not allowing me inside and not even clarifying why,” he said. Sawarn has returned to his Army unit and is currently harboring dreams of becoming a coach. This will be the Indian rowing team’s first competition since the 2019 Asian championship in Chungju, South Korea.