5 of India's greatest ever rowers

Kasam Khan

One-half of the Men’s Coxless Pairs Doubles event team that represented the nation at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Kasam Khan also has the distinction of being one among the two rowers who first represented the nation at the Olympic Games.

The Services man originally started out as a Coxless Fours rower, with his teammates being PT Paulose, Udaybir Singh and his Sydney Olympics teammate about whom more shall be described later. The transition from Coxless Fours to Coxless Pairs was made with ease however, as his rise to the biggest stage of them all proved.

One of the pioneers of Indian rowing, the Central Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports honoured him with the Arjuna Award in 2001, a year after he had made history at Sydney, and twenty years after Major Parveen Oberoy became the first ever Arjuna Award winning rower from the country.