Dattu Baban Bhokanal

Dattu Baban Bhokanal

Dattu Bhokanal with Shiv Chhatrapati Award by Government of Maharashtra
Personal information
Born	(1991-04-05) 5 April 1991 (age 33) Talegaon Rohi Tal: Chandwad, Dist: Nashik, Maharastra, India
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight	179 lb (81 kg)
Military career
Allegiance	India
Service / branch	Indian Army
Rank	Naib Subedar
Sport
Country	India
Sport	Rowing
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking	World's 13th Rank
Medal record Representing  India Men's Rowing Event 1st 2nd 3rd Senior National Championship 4 - - Asian Rowing Championship - 1 - FISA Asia Oceania Olympic Qualifier - 1 - Americal National Championship 1 - - Indoor National Championship 1 - - Asian Games 1 - - Total 7 2 0 Senior National Championship 2014 Pune Men's Single Sculls 2014 Pune Men's Single Sculls 2017 Pune Men's Single Sculls 2017 Pune Men's Single Sculls Asian Rowing Championship 2015 Beijing Men's Single Sculls FISA Asia Oceania Olympic Qualifier 2016 Chungju Men's Single Sculls American National Championship 2016 Cincinnati Men's Single Sculls Indoor National Championship 2017 Pune Men's Single Sculls Asian Games 2018 Jakarta Men's Quadruple sculls

Dattu Bhokanal is an Indian rower and an Indian Army Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) who was qualified for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.^[1][2][3] He was qualified for the Olympics after winning a silver medal in the men's single sculls event at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta at Chung-Ju, South Korea where he clocked 7 minutes and 07.63 seconds.^[3] He is the only Indian rower to qualify for the Rio Olympics and is only the ninth rower to represent India in the Olympics. He won the gold medal in the 2018 Asian Games in Men's Quadruple sculls.^[4][5]

Biography

Dattu was born in 1991.

Dattu's family could hardly meet both the ends with parents' meager earning as daily wage laborers.^[6][7] Hence, he dropped off the school in 2007 to do all kinds of odd jobs such as masonry, waiter in the wedding parties, helper on the farms, as a driver on tractors, earth movers, and other transportation vehicles.^[8][9] He started helping his father in well-digging work since 5th grade^[10] and in fact, that hard work helped him to build his stamina and strong arms required in rowing. At some point of time Dattu had also decided to become a well-digger.^[11] He used to work at a petrol pump at night and on the farm in the day time to support his family. He went back to school in 2010 to complete his 10th grade. However, he could not continue his education because of untimely death of his father in 2011. Dattu's father died due to bone cancer. After demise of his father, being the eldest in the family he needed a permanent job to support his family. In 2012, Dattu cleared all physical tests at the Indian Army's open recruitment drive in Beed district and got selected in the Indian Army as Havaldar.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly before his planned departure for FISA Asia Oceania Olympic Qualifier in South Korea in 2016, his mother suffered brain damage in a fall resulting in almost total amnesia which ultimately resulted in her death.^[8] Dattu was the sole rower representing India in 2016 Rio Olympic games.^[12]

Today Dattu is India's one of the top rowers. But ironically he grew up in a region where scarcity of water and dry drought is a normal phenomenon.^[13][14] In fact, in his childhood Dattu was terrified of waterbodies which he confessed in his interview with Virender Sehwag.^[15] Dattu has been named in the Forbes 30-under-30 list in 2017.^[16] Dr. Santosh Khedalekar wrote the biography of Dattu in Marathi "Dattu-The Rowing Man".^{[citation needed]}

Rowing career

He started rowing in 2012 at the Bombay Engineer Group & Centre (Khadki) Centre in Pune. In 2013, he shifted to Army Rowing Node (ARN), Pune for better training. His first coach was Kudrat Ali. Now he is being trained under Dronacharya Awardee and chief National rowing coach Ismail Baig at the ARN, Pune.

Dattu was the lone Indian rower to be qualified after winning a silver medal in the men's single sculls event at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic qualification regatta held at Chung-Ju in South Korea in 2016.^[17] He clocked 7 Minutes and 7.63 Seconds to complete the 2 km course to finish second.

In Rio Olympics 2016, Dattu secured 13th position by clocking 6 minutes and 54.96 seconds.^[18] In the same year, Dattu won Gold medal at American National Championship at Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Dattu Bhokanal won gold medal in quadruple sculls at Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang 2018 with timing 6 Minutes and 17.13 Seconds.

Dattu has been awarded Arjuna Award by the Government of India in 2020 for his achievements in the sport of rowing.^[19]

Achievements

Senior National Championship

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2014	Pune	Men's Single Sculls	7:26 min	Gold	2
2017	Pune	Men's Single Sculls		Gold	2

Asian Games

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result
2014	Incheon	Men's Double Sculls	6:47 min	5th

Asian Rowing Championship

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2015	Beijing	Men's Single Sculls	7:18 min	Silver	1

FISA Asia Oceania Olympic Qualifier

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2016	Chungju	Men's Single Sculls	7:07 min	Silver	1

American National Championship

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2016	Cincinnati	Men's Single Sculls	7:04 min	Gold	1

Rio Olympics

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2016	Rio de Janeiro	Men's Single Sculls	6:54.96 min	13th[20]

Indoor National Championship

Year	Venune	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2017	Pune	Men's Single Sculls	6:32 min	Gold	1

Asian Games

Year	Venue	Competition	Time	Result	Won
2018	Jakarta	Men's Quadruple Sculls	6:17 min	Gold	1
2018	Jakarta	Men's Single Sculls	7:47 min	5th

Awards

Year	Award	Awarded By
2016	Best Player & Rising Star	Rowing Federation of India
2017	Honored in the 30 Under 30 list	Forbes Magazine
2017	Times of India Best Player	Times of India Group
2017	Shiv Chhatrapati Award	Government of Maharashtra
2020	Arjuna Award	Government of India

References

1. "Indian Olympic Association Link" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 August 2016.
2. "It was a hard row to hoe for him to reach Rio". The Hindu. 4 May 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
3. "India's #RioOlympics Rower Dattu Baban Bhokanal Comes From A Village Without Water". 26 April 2016. Retrieved 24 June 2016.
4. "Asian Games: Indian rowers claim 1 gold, 2 bronze medals". The Times of India. 24 August 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
5. "Indian rowers claim gold, 2 bronze medals". The Economic Times. 24 August 2018. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
6. Sumnima Udas. "Rowing from a drought-stricken Indian village to Rio De Janeiro". CNN. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
7. Gupta, Deepak (10 August 2016). "Shobhaa De, have you heard the story about the Olympian Dattu Bhokanal? Because, you should!". India News, Breaking News, Entertainment News | India.com. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
8. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Dattu Bhokanal Josh Talks #Dattu_Bhokanal #ArjunaAwardee #Olympian. YouTube.
9. "How India's rowing-star Dattu Bhokanal overcame poverty to win gold at Asiad". 10 September 2018.
10. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: INDIA's Rowing Hero | Dattu Bhokanal. YouTube.
11. "Rowing in rough weather: Dattu Bhokanal's quest for Olympic gold".
12. "Dattu BHOKANAL - worldrowing.com". www.worldrowing.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2016.
13. "Dattu Bhokanal goes from drought-stricken India village to rowing at Rio Olympics". The National. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
14. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Dattu Bhokanal, India’s only rower to qualify for 2016 Olympics. YouTube.
15. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: #UmeedIndia Episode 7 With Dattu Bhokanal | EPIC Channel - Preview. YouTube.
16. "How Dattu Bhokanal Overcame Grief And Fear To Earn His Stripes As An Olympic Rower". Forbes India. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
17. "India rower Dattu Bhokanal qualifies for Rio Olympics 2016". 25 April 2016.
18. "Rio 2016 single sculls (1x) men - Olympic Rowing". International Olympic Committee. 9 March 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
19. "'A proud moment for me', says Rower Dattu Bhokanal on winning Arjuna Award | Sports-Games". Devdiscourse. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
20. "Rio 2016 single sculls (1x) men - Olympic Rowing". International Olympic Committee. 9 March 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2020.