Dattu Bhokanal, who produced the best performance in the history of Indian rowing, finds himself unable to compete in two major international events this year - the Asian Championships to be held in Pattaya, Thailand and the World Championships in Saratosa-Bradenton, USA, both next month.
It has been a year since Bhokanal's 13th-place finish in the men's single sculls at the Rio Olympics, the best by an Indian rower, which also saw him winning the "C" final of the event held to establish finishers from 13 to 18 with a personal best time of 6:54.96 over 2000m. Bhokanal was the only Indian rower to qualify for the 2016 Olympics, winning a silver medal in the Asia-Oceania Olympic qualification regatta in South Korea in April 2016.
India's best single sculler has spent the last 12 months since his breakout performance in Rio without competing in a single international event. The Rowing Federation of India (RFI) secretary-general cum CEO Girish J Phadnis told ESPN, "Dattu is not competing this year because he did not take part in the rowing events and selection process.."
Further queries about the reason for this non-participation, as well as the RFI's involvement in Bhokanal's progress following Rio, were responded to with, "your question regarding Mr. Dattu Bhokanal's non-participation in the Nationals held earlier this year in Bhopal would be best known to him. RFI has always encouraged all rowers to take active part in the Nationals."
The reasons best left unsaid by the RFI pertain to their feud with the Pune-based Army Rowing Node (ARN), due to which the Army rowers have not competed in the nationals for the last two years. The ARN runs its own rowing programme and has produced many elite-level rowers for India, with Bhokanal being the latest. The ARN was set up in 2001 as part of a wider Mission Olympics talent-generation programme across a range of sports - including rowing, athletics, diving, archery, weightlifting, boxing, sailing, wrestling, equestrian events and shooting. It is not known whether RFI had independently invited Bhokanal to take part in the national camp currently on in Hyderabad.
Like most national sports federations in India, the presence of an alternate training programme, no matter how successful, is rarely welcomed, with its athletes, no matter how successful, either sidelined or made to toe the line. It is the reason why Bhokanal's Rio performance has not been turned into an opportunity by the RFI to make the most of their sport's biggest success story.
The question of allowing Bhokanal to miss the 35th Nationals held in Bhopal from Jan. 27 to Feb. 3 in order to have him prepare for higher quality competition overseas was not part of the RFI's mission plan. So is the idea of working in sync with the ARN's best athletes and so de-linking their national camps from open selection trials for the big events. From the results sheet available from the Bhopal nationals, the men's single sculls timings are mentioned only over 500m, not the 2000m that elite men like Bhokanal are required to compete over.
Paul Mokha, the Miami-based US coach who worked at the ARN and with Bhokanal in the run-up to Rio, says high-level competition is vital for the progress of rowers like Bhokanal. Mokha's 16-year-old son, a competitive rower for three years, has already taken part in 25 competitions. It is highly unlikely that any Indian rower, Bhokanal downwards, would have had such competitive experience in their careers. Mokha says, "It will take a four or eight-year plan developing kids from junior level bringing them up through and sending them to competitions because competitions are big... that's what it takes. It takes going out there consistently and you lose and they beat you badly and okay, now I understand where I am and you train harder and you go back the next time.."
Despite the dearth of competitions even among its best, Mokha says India has the rowers and the infrastructure to win medals in "every single event they enter" at the Asian level. "That's how many guys they have in army rowing node. They are capable of being successful at Asian Championships and Asian Games, there is no doubt. And the priority boats (the different classes to be competed in), the ones that they target (for the Olympics) are our best boats, they should be winning (at Asian level) or right next to China at second place. There is no reason with the amount of resources they have, the athletes they have, there is no reason.."
As Bhokanal's last 12 months have proven, there is a reason. Except, it is not one that pertains to racing on water.