Four players selected from UP to compete in the World Rowing Cup-I in Serbia from May 27

Lucknow: Four players from Uttar Pradesh have been selected for the World Rowing Cup-I to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, from May 27 to 29.This will be the first event of the 2022 World Cup Series – this event will also be used as a test event for the 2023 World Rowing Championships.Talking to TOI, Sudhir Sharma, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Rowing Association, said: “We are elated as for the first time, four players from Uttar Pradesh have been selected for the World Rowing Cup.”All the four players — Arvind Singh, Ajay Tyagi, Punit Kumar and Ashish Phugat — are posted in the Army. They are presently camping in Pune to prepare for the upcoming World Rowing Cup.Two coaches Rajesh Kumar and Mohammad Azad will also accompany the quartet to Belgrade.Arvind, who hails from Khurja tehsil in Bulandshahr, participated in the Tokyo Olympics in singles and reached the second finals. Later, he was also honoured by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. At Belgrade, he will compete in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls event.Arvind has already made UP proud by winning several medals at national and international levels.Coming from Modinagar tehsil of Ghaziabad, Ajay has grabbed gold medal in light weight double in National Championship 2022. Ajay is going to participate in Men’s Four event in World Rowing Cup-I.Likewise, Punit has won a lot of medals at national and international levels, and Asian Championship. Hailing from Budhana tehsil of Muzaffarnagar, he will compete in Men’s Four event.Ashish, a resident of Meerut, will participate in the Quadruple event in the World Rowing Cup-I. Ashish won silver medal in the Asian Championship LightWeight Double in 2021.