India’s Satnam Singh and Salman Khan became the first pair to win a bronze medal for the country in the double sculls event at Asian Games 2026.
Published: September 24, 2026, 12:26 PM IST
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India’s Satnam Singh and Salman Khan (right) after winning bronze medal in men’s double sculls event at Asian Games 2026(Photo: IANS)
Asian Games 2026: It was a memorable and historical day for Indian rowing team as Satnam Singh and Salman Khan brought home India’s first-ever medal from the men’s double sculls event at the Asian Games 2026 on ThursdayThe team of Satnam and Salman won a heroic bronze medal after a third-place finish in the final.
The Indian pair were in contention to win the silver medal till the 1,500m mark before slipping to third in the final 500m, clocking 6:13.25 at the Nagaragawa International Regatta CourseChina’s Yi Xudi and Yide Nie won the gold medal with a timing of 6:09.37, while Uzbekistan’s Pavel Sorin and Mekhrojbek Mamatkulov claimed silver after clocking 6:10.49The Indian pair finished 3.88 seconds behind the gold medallists.
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BRONZE FOR INDIA IN ROWING!
Congratulations to the Indian rowing duo on winning the Bronze Medal in the Men’s Double Sculls at the Asian Games 2026.#AsianGames2026 #Cheer4Bharat #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/8p8yGVYPVU
— Pema Khandu པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་། (@PemaKhanduBJP) September 24, 2026
Satnam Singh switched from handball to rowing
It was the second medal for 26-year-old Satnam Singh, who had won the bronze medal at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou in the men’s quadruple sculls eventSatnam, who comes from Satta Manuka in Mansa, Punjab, had initially begun his career on the handball court and even competed at the nationl level before switching to rowing in 2018.
Satnam claims his inspiration was Olympian rower Swarn Singh Vark, who encourage him to switch to rowingHe represented India at the 2018 Youth Olympics and went on to claim the men’s single sculls title at the 40th Senior National Rowing Championships, becoming the first Indian Navy rower to win the coveted event.
Satnam was also part of India’s gold-winning men’s quadruple sculls team at the Senior Asian Rowing Championships last year.
Salman Khan – an engineer turned rower
For Salman Khan, who is a native of Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, it was a maiden Asian Games medal on ThursdayThe 28-year-old had joined Bombay Engineer Group in the Indian Army in 2018, who identified his potential to become a rower.
His coaches Coaches Satywan, Satish Siraat and Prabhat Mishra introduced him to rowing and selected him for the centre’s teamSalman represented his battalion and competed in inter-centre championships as well.
Salman had close to giving up the sport twice, but his coaches encouraged him to continueHe won gold at the National Games 2022 in Gujarat and also claimed the indoor national title the same year.
He was subsequently inducted into the Army Rowing Node (ARN), where he trained under senior coach Kudrat AliIn 2023, Salman won gold at the Senior Nationals and the Open Sprint Nationals.
Earlier on Thursday, India narrowly missed out on another rowing medal when Balraj Panwar finished fourth in the men’s single sculls final, clocking 6:54.80Panwar stayed in second place at the 500m, 1,000m and 1,500m marks but slipped to fourth in the final 500m.
China’s Deng Zhiwei won the gold medal after finishing in 6:38.98, while Panwar was 15.82 seconds behind the winner.
