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Asian Games: Men's fours, quadruple sculls add to India's rowing medal tally with bronzes

Ashish, Punit Kumar, Bheem Singh and Jaswinder Singh won the bronze medal in the rowing men's four event. Nordin Catic/Getty Images

India won a thrilling bronze in the men's four rowing event with the team of Jaswinder Singh, Bheem Singh, Punit Kumar, and Ashish powering through the final stretch to finish just 0.77 seconds behind China at the Hangzhou Asian Games Uzbekistan won gold with a dominant display, leading both China and India by more than five seconds.

Another bronze added to the country's tally by the men's quadruple sculls team of Satnam Singh, Parminder Singh, Jakar Khan and Sukhmeet Singh, who held off the Indonesia challenge to finish behind China and Uzbekistan.

This took India's rowing medal tally to five at Hangzhou (2 silver, 3 bronze) and they have now equalled their highest rowing medal tally ever: five at the 2010 Asian Games.

Men's four

India, starting in Lane 3, were fourth at both the 500m and 1000m marks before they kicked into high gear over the second half of the race. They overtook Japan in the next 500m but at the 1500m mark were still 2 seconds behind China. Another massive kick towards the end helped them close the gap further, but China held strong on the final stretch.

Earlier, on Sunday, Jaswinder, Bheem, Punit, and Ashish had also been part of the men's eight team that won silver.

They had had a sensational push in that race too. The four along with Neeraj (bow), Naresh Kalwaniya, Neetish Kumar, Charanjeet Singh, and coxswain Dhananjay Uttam Pande finished behind Chinabut beat out Indonesia towards the final stretch.

Starting in lane four, India were third at the end of the first 500m, 2.18 seconds behind the leaders, which went up to 2.35s at the 1km mark. India's push began at the midway point, overtaking Indonesia and 2.20s behind China at the 1500m mark, and gaining rapidly on the Chinese rowers. However, the eventual gold-winners responded with a late push, eventually winning by 2.84 seconds.

Also on Sunday, the men's doubles scull team of Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat won silver in the lightweight double sculls while Babu Lal Yadav and Lekh Ram won bronze in the men's pair.

Men's quadruple sculls

Satnam Singh and Parminder Singh recovered from a disappointing outing in the doubles sculls to combine with Jakar Khan and Sukhmeet Singh to win bronze. They overtook Indonesia at the 500m mark and stayed there through the remainder of the race maintaining a steady distance behind silver winners Uzbekistan and gold medalists China