India secures Olympic quota in Weightlifting & Rowing

Outstanding performances of Indian players in various games continues to give India more number of Olympic quotas and also chance of winning more number of medals at the London Olympics. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, only 56 Indian players qualified and with about 3 months remaining for the London Olympics, already 63 Indian players including the Indian Hockey team have booked their berths for the big games.

Yesterday, two Indian players one each in Rowing and Weightlifting earned India an Olympic quota. In Rowing, young Army man Swaran Singh assured India of an Olympic berth after he qualified for the single sculls final of the Asian Regatta in Chungju, South Korea. Swaran Singh also won the Gold Medal in Men’s single sculls with the timing of 7:01:68, Swaran was way ahead of the Iran rower who finished second with the timing of 7:08:52. Swaran, who hails from Pune, became the first Indian rower to book a berth for the London Olympics. An official of the Rowing Federation of India said they will formally announce Swaran’s achievement after the finals on Sunday. Other Indian rowers are also giving their best in the tournament to earn more Olympic quotas for India.

In Weightlifting, top Indian Woman Weightlifter Soniya Chanu earned India an Olympic spot when she finished 4th overall in the 48kg wt category at the Asian Olympic Qualification tournament. Soniya, who finished 6th in the World Championships last year became the first Indian weightlifter to qualify for London 2012. She won the bronze medal in the snatch category with a lift of 75kg, but she was not in her best in the clean and jerk category as she just lifted 100 kg in that event and with a total of 175kg, she finished fourth in the overall rankings. Chinese weightlifter Huang Yuezhen finished 1st with the overall lift of 200 kg. 2010 CWG gold medalist Ravi Kumar finished 6th in 69kg weight category with the total lift of 311 kg and was far away from his best lift which is 321kgs. Performance of the other Indian weightlifter wasn’t upto the mark as they failed to make it to the Olympics.