The Asian Games 2018 has produced quite a few stars for India. The sixth day of the event saw another hero emerge – Dushyant Singh who went on to clinch India's first medal in rowing in the ongoing Asian Games and redeemed the rowing contingent's performance at the tournament.
The 25-year-old, with a timing of 7.18.76s, finished third in the men's lightweight single sculls - behind South Korea's Park Hyunsu and Hong Kong's Chiu Hin Chun.
However, Dushyant was so exhausted after the effort that he collapsed on reaching the finish line. In fact, he was drained to the extent that he was unable to stand at the podium during the medal ceremony to receive his medal. He had to be eventually wheeled in and was administered a drip.
"I pushed as if it was the last race of my life. That was the only thing in the mind. May be I pushed a bit too hard but it was worth it. I had a bad cold and throat in the run up to the event, that also affected me a lot during the race. I was gone," Dushyant was quoted as saying to Press Trust of India.
It was later revealed that Dushyant had high blood pressure but stuck it through his event to win a medal for his country. He had also not eaten much in the morning - just two slices of bread and an apple according to his own admission. Dushyant had also clinched a bronze in the single sculls at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon and has managed to defend his third place this time.
Hailing from the small town of from Jhajjar in Haryana, Dushyant is a son of a farmer and has worked hard to reach the top. Not many know that he is also an Army man and has been training actively from the past two years at the Army Rowing Node in Pune.
Dushyant joined the Bengal Engineering Group in the Army back in 2012 and opted for rowing there.
The Army had selected Dushyant, along with three other rowers, as the best bet for India in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Unfortunately, Dushyant couldn't qualify for the event as he was diagnosed with a bout of chickenpox, just a few weeks prior to the Olympics.
The rower also has two gold medals in his kitty – from the Asian Indoor Rowing Championship in 2015 and from the Senior National Rowing Championships in 2017. The bronze in the 2018 Asian Games, however, would come as a major boost in Dushyant Singh's career, especially because of the way he displayed his never-say-die spirit to win the medal.
Dushyant's performance was followed by Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Singh who won another bronze for India by finishing third in the Men's Lightweight Double Sculls.
The best, however, was achieved by the four-man Indian team of Sawarn Singh - Dattu Bhokanal -Om Prakash - Sukhmeet Singh, who clinched gold for the country – India's fifth in the event.
