Rower Dushyant takes bronze in lightweight single sculls

Indian rower Dushiant Dushyant faltered in the final 500 metres and had to settle for the bronze medal in the men's lightweight single sculls final of the 17th Asian Games at the Chungju Tangeum Lake Rowing Center here Wednesday.

Dushyant completed the 2,000 metre race in seven minutes and 26.57 seconds to finish third behind gold medal winner Hoi Kwan Lok of Hong Kong and South Korea's Hakbeom Lee, who took silver.

The Indian rower, who had scaled down his weight to 72 kg from 78 to compete in the lightweight event, was in second place 1.57 seconds behind Kwan Lok after the first 500 metres.

The 22-year-old then rowed into the lead and opened up 1.21 seconds lead by the 1,000m mark.

The Hong Kong rower ate into the Indian's lead to reduce the difference to 0.64 seconds in the next 500m but Dushyant was still 2.21 seconds ahead of Lee in third place.

The Indian, however, lost steam on the home stretch as both Kwan Lok and Lee caught up and then overtook him to deny Dushyant a top-two finish.

India, who had 11 medals at the end of day four, now have added another bronze.