Salam Sunil Singh, son of a fisherman, and Arjun Singh, born to a manufacturing facility employee, grew up 2000km aside from one another. But there’s a binding thread – an endless ardour for water sports activities unhindered by their troublesome early life. The 24-year-old Sunil from Moirang, Manipur, and the 16-year-old Arjun, who grew up in Roorkee, mixed that zeal to land India a bronze medal in males’s double canoe 1000m occasion on the Asian Games on Tuesday, a primary for the nation because the 1994 occasion.

The duo clocked 3:53.329 seconds to complete third right here. In the 1994 Hiroshima version, India had bagged a bronze in the identical occasion by way of Siji Sadanandan and Johnny Rommel.

For Sunil and Arjun, the medal was the fruits of the onerous work that they had put in regardless of the crushing odds of their lives.

“My father (Iboyaima Singh) is a fisherman and every morning and evening he would row his boat out and catch fishes at the Loktak Lake and that is our family’s source of income. My mother (Binita Devi) is just a homemaker,” Sunil instructed PTI after successful the bronze in Hangzhou.

“When I started it was very difficult as the boat and other equipment cost a lot. One pedal costs a minimum of Rs 40,000 and a boat costs Rs 4-5 lakh.

“Initially, my household and relations chipped in to finance me however after I joined the Indian Army in 2017, I used to be capable of handle myself,” said Sunil, who is now a havildar in the Army.

Sunil’s passion for water is inherent as he was born and brought up near the Loktak Lake, the largest freshwater body in Northeast India, and it also houses the famous Keibul Lamjao National Park.

Sunil took his first canoeing lessons at the water sports training complex near the lake. He shifted to Hyderabad in 2013 on the advice of his aunt who is also a canoe coach.

In 2015, he got selected for the national camp and he became the national champion next year.

He then trained at the Roorkee Army centre but polished his skills at the Bhopal SAI Centre under Pijush Baroi, who is the men’s coach.

Arjun was also in Roorkee before shifting to Bhopal recently on the advice of Borai. They paired up for the first time a few months ahead of the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Germany in August, where they reached the final and finished ninth.

Arjun’s family is from Bhagpat, Uttar Pradesh, but later they shifted to Roorkee.

Arjun too trains at the SAI, Bhopal but that has not made him forget the tough days when his family struggled to make both ends meet.

“My father isn’t any extra and my mom works at a drugs manufacturing manufacturing facility in Roorkee and earns Rs 8000 to Rs 10000 a month.

“We live in a rented house. It was very difficult with that meagre income. My mother suffered a lot,” stated Arjun.

“It is a little better now since I am at the Bhopal SAI Centre where I am very well taken care of,” stated Arjun, a category 12 scholar.

But Arjun will perpetually be indebted to his uncle, Ajit Singh for that change in life.

Ajit, a nationwide and worldwide canoer, requested Arjun to shift to Roorkee alongside together with his household in 2017 to coach there on the Army Node. Arjun was 12 then.

Arjun was additionally at Jagatpur SAI Centre in Odisha for a quick interval in 2022 earlier than coming to Bhopal earlier this yr.

“I have been fascinated with water sports since childhood. My uncle encouraged me a lot. I became so passionate about water sports that I often dream of my competitions. Even yesterday (in Hangzhou), I was competing in my dreams and winning a medal,” stated Arjun.

The teenager idolises Martin Fuksa of Czech Republic, the reigning world champion in canoe single 1000m occasion. But Arjun now has a much bigger goal forward of him – Paris Olympics.

“Paris Olympics is my target and we will do our best to get there,” he stated.

But it’s simpler stated than executed because the pair of Arjun and Sunil, in keeping with Baroi, should end second within the Olympics qualification occasion to be held in Paris in April subsequent yr.

“Let’s see what happens there,” Baroi stated.

But hope in his voice is unmistakable.