Indian rowers disappoint

After winning a bronze medal on Wednesday, India's rowers failed to make much of an impact in Asian Games rowing competition which concluded at the Nakdong river rowing course in Busan on Thursday.

The Indian quartet of Mujeeb Rehman Kolakkodan, Ratheesh Kumar, Saji Thomas and Kasam Khan came close to a bronze medal but eventually had to be content with the fourth position in the final of the men's lightweight four-oars without coxswain event, with a timing of 6 minutes 20.05 seconds.

China won the gold while the silver and bronze medals went to Japan and Indonesia.

The Indian duo of Julee Varghese and Sobhni Rajan finished fifth in the women's pair-oars with coxswain final with a timing of 9:29.07 seconds, on a day which saw the strong Chinese rowing team maintain their dominance by picking up six of the last seven gold medals at stake.

In the final of the men's eight-oars with coxswain event, India took the fith place with a disappointing time of 7:00.70 seconds, on yet another frustrating day for the rowers who have not been able to match the strength and skill of the Chinese and Japanese.

The men's eight-oars with coxswain team comprised Roshan Lal, R K Pillai, Udaybir Singh, Jenil Krishnan, Inderpal Singh, Sunil Kakde, Kudrat Ali, P T Paulose and K V Sajith.

Japanese rowing duo thwarts China clean sweep

Meanwhile, Japanese scullers Daisaku Takeda and Kazushige Ura prevented a clean sweep for China as the final rowing medals were settled.

Takeda and Ura teamed up in the men's lightweight doubles and powered to a convincing victory as Japan ended China's hopes of winning all 13 rowing gold medals.

The Japanese duo finished nearly 11 seconds clear of China's Yang Maozong and Chen Hong, crossing the line at the Nakdong River course in a time of 7min 0.50 seconds. The Philippines's Alvin Amposta and Nestor Cordova took bronze.

Japan's victory meant China had to settle instead for 12 of the 13 golds on offer. Having won the opening six golds on the first day of competition, they added six more today with ease.

A comfortable victory in the men's lightweight coxless fours was followed by victory in the double sculls, where Su Hui and Wang Jingfeng were in a class of their own for much of the race.

China also had a decisive win in the men's eight, shutting out Japan and Uzbekistan into the silver and bronze medal positions respectively.

Where China's men failed to sweep the rest of the field, their women rowers succeeded however. Dang Junling and Li Qin crushed the field in the double sculls, winning in 8:16.95. Chinese rowers also won easily in the lightweight double sculls and coxless pairs.

The medal haul means that since rowing was introduced into the Games in New Delhi in 1982, China has won 57 of the 60 gold medals contested.