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Rower Dattu Bhokanal crashes out in quarter-finals

Last updated on: August 09, 2016 20:28 IST

IMAGE: Dattu Bhokanal in action in the rowing men's singles Sculls heat in Rio de Janeiro, on Saturday. Photograph: Carlos Barria/Reuters.

Indian rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal finished fourth in the quarter-finals of the men's Single Sculls and dropped out of medal reckoning at the Rio Olympics on Tuesday.

Bhokanal clocked 6:59.89 seconds for the 2000m distance, a little more than six seconds behind the third and last qualifier from the quarter-final 4, Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (6:53.52) of Poland.

Croatia's Damir Martin, the London Olympics silver medallist, won the quarter-final with a far superior timing of 6:44.44s, finishing ahead of second-placed Alan Campbell (6:49.41).

Armyman Bhokanal, whose ailing mother is in an Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in India, had clocked 7:21.67s in the heats.

He commenced strongly and was second going past the 500 metre mark, but gradually slowed down.

India's lone rower in the fray, he will now have to fight for minor placings.