Olympics: Rowers qualify for semis in men's lightweight double scull

Tokyo, July 25 (IANS) The Indian rowers Arjun Lal Jat and Arvind Singh qualified for the semifinals of the men's lightweight double scull event, finished third in the repechage race on Sunday.The Indian crew clocked 6 minutes 51.36 seconds in the 2000m Repechage 2 race to finish behind a crew from Poland (6:43.44) and Spain (6:45.71) at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo. They will now take part in the semifinals to be held on Tuesday (July 27). The Indians started a bit slow on Sunday and were placed fifth after 50 metres behind Spain, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Poland. However, they improved their speed and stroke-per-minute rate in the middle of the race to finish third. They will now be part of the second semifinal on Tuesday, racing along with Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, and Ukraine. The top-three placed crew in the two semifinals will qualify for the six-team final.
--IANSbsk/akm