Athletes in Poznan: Indian men's four

The men’s four raced through the heats, repechages and finished in the C-final at the 2009 World Rowing Championships in Poznan, Poland.

Since racing at the 2007 World Rowing Championships, the crew has changed on one position. Bowman Dharmesh Sangwan was still racing lightweight in 2007 and has now joined the heavyweight four. Their coach is Ismail Baig. World Rowing talked to the crew and their coach about racing at these World Rowing Championships.

Jenil Krishnan, Sukhjeet Singh, Inderpal Siwatch and Dharmesh Sangwan

World Rowing: Where did you prepare for these World Rowing Championships?
Men’s four: We were at the Rowing World Cup in Munich, but then went back to India. We train in the South of India at Hyderabad. That’s where our national camps take place. It’s a lake we are training on.

WR: How did you get into rowing and do you select rowers?
M4-: There are three training centres in our country for water sports. Jenil was selected through talent identification at these centres and started rowing at the junior level. Darmesh, Inderpal and Sukhjeet were all in the army when they were introduced to rowing, so they were already between 18 and 20 years old when they started, which is quite late for the world standard. Now the four of them are in the army and are able to pretty much row full-time. Many of our athletes are selected out of the army, but we also try to build up the junior levels.

WR: Is rowing growing in India?
M4-: It’s been improving and growing over the last 10 years. One of our main aims is to get younger people at the junior level involved. It was already a great success to have 12 athletes at this year’s junior World Rowing Championships. We were very happy about the 11th place of our junior pair of Yasin Khan and Munesh Kumar. It was our first time that India has made a semifinal at a rowing championships, which is very promising for the future. But we are still at the beginning of developing rowing in India and the aid through FISA is important and necessary.

WR: What motivates you?
Jenil: If we do well in rowing, we’ll be promoted in our jobs in the army, which is something good to aim for.
Inderpal: It’s great when you can represent your country at international sporting events.

WR: How do you like Poznan?
M4-: We like it very much. It’s great that there are many people around the course and you get lots of support. We haven’t been to the city centre yet, but will do so when we have finished racing.

WR: How did your races go here for you?
M4-: The four is a very hard event. But we are improving and can tell that our racing here is already better than at our last World Rowing Championship in 2007. We have been focusing on the pair and four, but one member of the pair got injured so we only brought the four here. The four is our priority boat and our main aim will be to build a strong crew for the future. We hope to get better every year and hope to make it to the B-final sometime in the not so far-away future. Next year we will also focus on the Asian Games.

WR: Who do you think will win the A-final in the men’s four?
M4-: We’ll definitely watch the final. The Australians look very good, but we will be cheering for all of them.