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Asian Games medalists Arjun Singh and Sunil Singh Salam missed out on the Paris Olympic 2024 quota after a sixth-place finish in the men's C2 500 m final, while Megha Pradeep secured a bronze medal in the women's C1 500 m race in the Asian Canoe Sprint Championships in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday.
Racing at the Sea Forest Waterway, a venue used during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Megha clocked timings of 2:28.027 minutes to finish at third place. Gold and silver medals were captured by Vietnam's Diep Thi Huong (02:18.178 minutes) and Kazakhstan's Ulyana Kisseleva (02:26.645 minutes), as per Olympics.com. The Tokyo meet doubles up as the Asian Canoe Sprint Qualifier. Asian Games Hangzhou medalists from last year, Arjun and Sunil, missed out on Olympic quota as they clocked timings of 1:49.237 minutes, around five seconds slower than the winners: Sergey Yemlyanov and Timur Khaidarov of Kazakhstan, who won the race in 1:44.213 minutes. They had the top boat in the men's C2 - 500m and secured the Olympic quota for their country. In the women's K2 500 m, another Olympic category offering quotas to the participants, Parvathy Geetha and Soniya Devi Phairembam finished in the eighth spot by clocking timings of 2:04.807. The Indian duo was 14.77 seconds behind China's winning duo of Shimeng Yu and Yule Chen, who secured the Olympic quota. In the men's K2 500 m Olympic category, Rimson Mairembam and Harshwardhan Singh Shaktawat earned a fourth-place finish in the semifinals and missed out on the title clash as only the top three semifinalists could progress further. India's Neha Devi Leichonbam and Kaveri faced disqualification in the women's C2 500 final while Naocha Singh Laitonjam failed to make it to the final of the men's 200 m non-Olympic category. The other quota aspirants for India are Varinder Singh (men's K1 1000m) and Gyaneshwor Singh Philem (men's C1 1000m), and will start competing on Saturday and could play in finals on Sunday if they play well. (ANI)
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