PARIS: India's lone representative in rowing at the Paris Olympics, Balraj Panwar on Tuesday finished fifth in his quarterfinals heat race of the men's single sculls event and will now fight for minor positions.
The 25-year-old clocked 7 minutes and 5.10 seconds in quarterfinals heat 4 to be relegated to semifinals C/D, meant for rowers to compete for positions 13th to 24th.
Individual Neutral Athlete Yauheni Zalaty won the quarterfinals heat 4 with a time of 6:49.27, while Giedrius Bieliauskas (6:51.80) of Lithuania and Ryuta Arakawa (6:54.17) of Japan were second and third respectively.
Panwar had progressed to the quarterfinals after finishing second in his repechage round race on Sunday. He had finished fourth in his first round heat race on Saturday to make it to the repechage round.
Those who finished in top three in each of the four quarterfinal heats qualify for the semifinals A/B and the remainder compete in semifinals C/D. The rowers in semifinals A/B will vie for Final A/B races. Medals are awarded to the top three finishers in Final A.