Paris [France]: Rower Balraj Panwar pulled off a sensational performance to book a spot in the quarter-finals in men's rowing at the Paris Olympics on Sunday. India's sole representative in the event, Balraj, finished second in the repechage round of men's single sculls by clocking 7:12.41s in his heat.
The Haryana-based rower got a quick start and was leading the pack in the initial stages of the event. Till the halfway mark, Balraj continued to give a tough time to Monaco's rower Quentin.
In the final 200 meters the race saw a tussle between Balraj and Quentin with both of them surpassing each other for a finish at the top position. Monaco's rower eventually overtook Balraj and finished at the top with a timing of 7:10.00s. Indonesian rower La Memo settled for the third spot by clocking 7:19.60s.
Balraj had a chance to make it into the quarter-final of the event earlier on the first day of the Paris Games but his campaign got off to a shaky start. In his first heat in the men's single sculls, Balraj recorded a timing of 7:07:11 seconds to finish at the fourth place. He missed a berth in the quarterfinals just by a whisker as only three competitors from each race could make it to the quarterfinals directly.
In heat one, New Zealand's Thomas Mackintosh finished at the top with a timing of 6:55.92s while Greece rower Stefanos Ntouskos finished the race behind him with a time of 7:01.79s. Egypt's Abdelkhalek El-Banna clocked 7:05.06s and concluded the race at the third position.
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