Satnam and Salman spare India the blushes with a maiden bronze medal in double sculls

Satnam Singh and Salman Khan saved the blushes for the Indian rowing contingent with a bronze in the men’s double sculls at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya with one medal on Thursday.

The Indians clocked 6:13.25 at the Nagaragawa International Regatta Course to finish behind the People’s Republic of China’s Yi Xudi and Nie Yide, who won gold in 6:09.77. Uzbekistan’s Mekhrojbek Mamatkulov and Pavel Sorin took silver in 6:10.49.

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It was India’s first-ever Asian Games medal in the men’s double sculls, according to Olympics.com.

Satnam and Salman were second at the 500m, 1000m and 1500m marks before the Uzbek pair moved past them over the final 500m. The Indians held on for bronze.

For Satnam, it was a second consecutive Asian Games bronze. He was part of the Indian men’s quadruple sculls crew that finished third at Hangzhou 2023. Salman, meanwhile, won his maiden Asian Games medal.

The bronze was India’s 29th medal in rowing at the Asian Games. The country had enjoyed a bigger haul in Hangzhou, winning five medals – two silver and three bronze – to equal their best-ever Asian Games rowing medal tally from Guangzhou 2010.

India fielded a 22-member rowing contingent for eight rowing events at Aichi-Nagoya 2026, comprising 17 men and five women.

Olympian Balraj Panwar came closest to adding another medal, finishing fourth in the men’s single sculls. Rohit and Ujjwal Kumar Singh also narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth in the lightweight men’s double sculls.

The Indian men’s quadruple sculls crew finished fifth, while India placed sixth in the women’s four. Jaswinder Singh and Nitin Kumar won the men’s pair Final B, a non-medal classification race, to finish seventh overall.

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Ajay Tyagi reached Final B, a non-medal classification race, in the lightweight men’s single sculls. The men’s four crew of Vipul Satish Ghurde, Saurav Kumar, Babu Lal Yadav and Yogesh Kumar was eliminated in the heats.