India’s rowing representative Arjun Jat comes from a humble background. His roots are in Rajasthan’s Nayabas village, where he spent a major part of his childhood, helping his parents with farming related work.
When Arjun was eligible for a job, he joined the Indian Army.
It comes as no surprise that Arjun was not aware of rowing as a sport as there were barely any resources at his hometown. He was only introduced to rowing in 2016 by former Indian Olympian Bajrang Lal. The former Olympian is also a native of Rajasthan.
Arjun and his now rowing partner Arvind Singh were overweight for the lightweight double sculls category when they thought of investing themselves entirely to the sport. Since the duo were dedicated, they shed their extra kilos to meet the criteria and began their training. There has been no looking back since then.
Arjun and Arvind’s dedication and efforts bore fruit after they made India proud by clinching the second position at the 2019 Asian Championships. The two Indian Army personnel did not get anything on a platter. They were kept as reserves at the 2018 Asian Games before they brought home the silver medal in the event held during the tournament in South Korea.
Age - 24
Sports/Discipline - Rowing
First Olympic Games - Tokyo 2020
Major Achievements
Asian Championships
Silver - men’s lightweight double sculls event, 2019 South Korea
Tokyo Olympics Qualification
Arjun along with his partner Arvind managed to secure their Tokyo 2020 berth among the 14-member squad. The duo completed a distance of 2000m in 6:36.92 during the qualification event at the Sea Forest Waterway. The two of them crossed the finish line 2.22 seconds after Japan’s Naoki Furuta and Mitsuo Nishimura.
Recent Performances
Arjun and Arvind most won the Silver medal in the Asian Championships of 2019 in South Korea.
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