The Indian representation in Rio Olympics 2016 has taken place over five days, and as of now not a single medal has been won. Star shooter Abhinav Bindra came close to clinching the first medal for the country this year on Monday, but he missed it by a whisker.
The question that remains now is -- when will India finally be able to strike a medal? Rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal will definitely be willing to giving his best shot to tick the expectations off. Not that known a personality as compared to Jitu Rai or Bindra or even Shiva Thapa, the 25-year-old from Maharashtra pulled off an impressive performance in the rowing single sculls heats to progress to the quarterfinals.
Dattu will be competing on Tuesday alongside experienced rowers from Uruguay, Poland, Great Britain and Croatia in the fourth quarterfinal event of the day.
The Indian army rower clocked 7:21.67s in the 2000 m race on Aug. 6 in the heats and stood third behind Cuba's Angel Fournier Rodriguez (7:06.89s) and Mexico's Juan Carlos Cabrera (7:08.27s).
"He [Dattu] was not too hurried, and he stuck to a solid race plan," said the Indian rower's coach Paul Mokha. "Yes the timing's not looking great, but the goal was qualification, we got that done. Given everything that's happening in his life, I'm happy he stuck to his plan.
"He has this amazing ability to shut everything out and go out there and get the job done," the coach added.
Men's single sculls rowing quarterfinals is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. IST (1 p.m. BST, 8 a.m. EST) on Aug. 9.
Where to watch live
India: TV: Star Sports 2/HD, Star Sports 3/HD, DD National. Live streaming: Hotstar.
UK: TV: BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four. Live streaming: BBC Red Button.
USA: TV: NBC Sports. Live streaming: NBC Olympics.
