Coxed-eight team wins silver

Indian rowers powered their way to two silver and a bronze medal, launching their campaign in the Asian Games on a rollicking note with the coxed-eight team being the latest to win a silver against China.

The gruelling men's coxed eight event saw a keen tussle between China and India before the latter finished second with a time of 5:43.01s, which was 2.84s behind the host team, which clocked 5:40.17. The Indian men's coxed-eight team comprised Neeraj, Nareskh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Puneet Kumar and Ashish.

Indonesia, who clocked a time of 5:45.51s were third. The achievement is all the more creditable given that rowers from powerhouse Uzbekistan and Japan finished fourth and fifth respectively.

In the coxless pair event, India Babulal Yadav and Lekh Ram had to settle for bronze with a time of 6:50.41 sec, behind gold medallists Hong Kong, China (6:44.20 sec) and Uzbekistan 6:48.11.

Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh opened the country's account with a silver medal in the men's lightweight doubles sculls event.

India has sent a huge contingent of 33 rowers at the continental games.