Khelo India Water Sports Festival Madhya Pradesh finish on top; West Bengal win rowing gold
Shweta Brahmachari wins gold in women’s single scull at iconic Dal Lake
Sanchita Chatterjee, BS News Agency / SAI Srinagar: Shweta Brahmachari won West Bengal’s only gold medal at the inaugural Khelo India Water Sports Festival at the iconic Dal Lake here. The three-day, Open age category championships ended on Saturday.
Three rowers represented West Bengal in the Khelo India Water Sport Festival 2025. Shweta Brahmachari, 26, was the lone medalist from the two events – men’s double scull and women’s single scull -- that Bengal qualified.
Shweta has been rowing consistently for last 13 years and has plenty of national medals to her name. Her recent performance includes a Bronze in Mixed Pair event at the Asian Indoor Rowing Championship in Pattaya in May 2025 with Pratik Gupta. She has been a consistent performer in women’s single scull and has won medals in National Games, Khelo India University Games etc.
Shweta is supported by her state, the West Bengal Rowing Association, her club, The Lake Club. "The Khelo India Water Sports Festival is a good initiative. We need more domestic competitions for youngsters to get better. We have a lot of talent and experienced coaches. My gold medal is a return for all the hard work I have been putting in and I hope it inspires the youngsters to take up rowing as a sport in West Bengal," said Shweta.
Madhya Pradesh continued their good from Friday to finish on top of the medal tally in the first Khelo India Water Sports Festival that concluded at the Dal Lake here on Saturday. Odisha and Kerala finished in the top three largely due to the contribution of athletes who train at Sports Authority of India centres in Jatpur and Alappuzha.
Madhya Pradesh, who won all the four kayaking and canoeing gold at stake on Day 2, added six more gold medals on the final day on Saturday to win the team championship with a handsome tally of 18 medals. This included three silvers and five bronze medals. Twenty-four gold medals were at stake in the entire Water Games. Fourteen were in kayaking and canoeing and 10 in rowing. All races were Olympic events.
Odisha and Kerala profited from SAI training centres in Jagatpur and Alappuzha. Twenty-one Khelo India Athletes, all from rowing, took part in the Khelo India Water Sports Festival. They won two gold medals, two silvers and as many bronze medals in the 10 rowing events.
The performance of kayakers and canoeists who train at the five SAI centres across India excelled as well. Forty-seven SAI athletes won five golds, seven silvers and three bronze medals. Jagatpur, which had 15 athletes and many from Manipur at KIWSF 2025, was the best with three golds and five silvers. Odisha’s Rasmita Sahoo was a standout athlete with two gold medals. Dally Bishnoi of MP was another.
Jammu and Kashmir did well as hosts. Mohsin Ali won the first gold medal of the Games in 1000-metres men’s Kayaking event. It was a career highlight for the youngster. Two more youngsters Sajad Hussain and Muhammad Hussain, who train under SAI coach Zulfkar Ali Bhat at the Nehru Park centre at Dal Lake, added a medal each. J&K finished seventh with a gold, a silver and a bronze.
There was a lot of focus on Shikha Chauhan, Reena Sen and Pallavi Jagtab. Fresh from the historic silver medal at the Asian Canoe Slalom Championship in Guizhou, China, all three finished among the medals on the final day. Shikha won the kayaking singles slalom gold and Pallavi finished No. 1 in the canoeing singles where Reena (Uttarakhand) finished third. Shikha and Pallavi train in the state water sports facility in the Lower Lake in Bhopal.
The emerging talent in water sports was noticed in Khelo India Water Sports Festival. There were some upsets too. Tokyo Olympian and Army rower Arjun Lal Jat, representing Delhi, was relegated to silver by Odisha’s Aviraj in the men’s single scull over a distance of 1000 metres. Aviraj (03.37.54 seconds) won a tight race against Jat (03.28.68 sec).
RESULTS (All finals)
CANOEING & KAYAKING
K1 Slalom (men): 1. Hitesh Kewat (Madhya Pradesh) 01.13.07 sec 2. Aanak Chouhan (Gujarat) 01.14.57 sec 3. Vikash Rana (Meghalaya) 01: 17.52 sec
C1 Slalom (women): 1. Pallavi Jagtab (MP) 01.36.30 sec 2. Manasvi Raikwar (Maharashtra) 01.37.44 sec 3. Reena Sen (Uttarakhand) 01.39.59 sec.
C1 Slalom (men): 1. Dhruv Raj Dholpuria (MP) 01.27.05 sec 2. Vishal Verma (Uttarakhand) 01.27.62 sec 3. Nagidi Rajesh (Andhra Pradesh) 01.31.54 sec.
K1 Kayak slalom (women): 1. Shikha Chauhan (MP) 01.23.60 sec 2. Nagidi Gayathri (Andhra Pradesh) 01.24.98 sec 3. Elizabeth Vincent (Meghalaya) 01.28.95 sec.
K4 500m sprint (men): 1. Balamurali MJ, Aswinkesh VS, Alan Reji and Adarsh P Anil Kumar (Kerala) 01.29.38 sec 2. Harshvardhan Singh Shaktawat, Vishal Dangi, Yashu Vishwakarma and Nishant Rana (Uttarakhand) 01.29.94 sec 3. Ningthoujam Ngangba Singh, Lanthoiba Potshangbam, Konjengbam Nelson Singh and Laiphrakpam Sanatomba Singh (Manipur) 01.32.69 sec.
C2 500m sprint (women): 1. Rasmita Sahoo and Achoibam Sanatombi Devi (Odisha) 02.11.02 sec 2. Pragati Sharma and Dipika Dimar (MP) 02.13.07 sec 3. Salam Chaoba Devi and Ramkanya Dangi (Uttarakhand) 02.14.96 sec
K4 500m sprint (women): 1. Bidya Devi Oinam, Shruti Tanaji Chougule, Leichonbam Sonia Devi, Konsam Yaiphatombi Devi (Odisha) 01.50.89 sec 2. Swati Sahu, Ashly MK, Karishma Suresh, Pukhrambamroji Devi (Uttarakhand) 01.51.58 sec 3. Dally Bishnoi, Neelu Verma, Rukmani Dangi, Manvi Jat (MP) 01.52.38 sec.
ROWING
Coxless Fours (women, 1000m): 1. Angel Mariya Raju, Vismaya Vipin, Trisna Anil Kumar, Meenakshy VS (Kerala) 03.31.50 sec 2. S. Tamil Selvi, Rose Mastica Meril, Rohini Priya, R Bagavathy (Tamil Nadu) 03.33.00 sec 3. Sonali Swain, Anushka Patel, Sonalika Das and Arunprit Kaur (Odisha) 03:33.77 sec
Coxless Fours (men, 1000m): 1. Bhopal Singh, Bhupandar, Kapil, Nitin (Delhi) 02.55.66 sec 2. Shme, Rohit, Sachin, Mohit Kumar (Haryana) 02:58.10 secs 3. Banti Sendhav, Harsh Tomar, Akshay Yadav, Dheeraj Verma (MP) 02:59.49 sec.
Coxless pair (men, 1000m): 1. Vipul Satish Ghurde and Jasmail Singh (Maharashtra) 03:12.13 secs 2. Harshpratap Singh Jat and Devraj Singh (MP) 03: 15.04 sec 3. Navdeep and Hardeep Singh (Telangana) 03:20.26 sec
Lightweight double scull (women, 1000m): 1. Santosh Yadav and Rukmani (MP) 03:34.26 secs 2. Sweeti and Anshika Bharti (Odisha) 03:38.43 3. Reena Kumari and Kiran Devi (Meghalaya) 03:40.21 sec
Single scull (men, 1000m): 1. Aviraj (Odisha) 03.27.54 sec 2. Arjun Lal Jat (Delhi) 03.28.68 sec 3. Ajay (Jharkhand) 03.30.34 sec
Double scull (women, 1000m): 1. Ashwani Kumaran VP and Anna Helan Joseph (Kerala) 03:42.37 secs 2. Bhagyashree Ghule and Gursharanpreet Singh Kaur (Odisha) 03:43.200 secs 3. Vanshika Sahu and Priyanka Chahal (MP) 03:44.20 sec
Double scull (men, 1000m): 1. Bhupinder Singh and Prithvi Singh Cheema (Punjab) 03.08.63 sec 2. Arpit Singh and Pankaj Kulhari (Delhi) 03.09.89 sec 3. Suraj Singh and Rahul Chaudhary (Uttarakhand) 03.10.30 sec.
Coxless pair (women): 1. Manisha Dangi and Jigyasa Regar (MP) 03.40.58 sec 2. Jasmeen Kaur and Jashanpreet Kaur (Punjab) 03.44.45 sec 3. Sruthimol Biju and Amala Rose (Kerala) 03.56.22 sec.
Lightweight double scull (men 1000m): 1. Sumit Rathi and Harinath Yadav (Uttar Pradesh) 03.11.11 sec 2. Ramanpal Singh and Jaspal Singh (Chandigarh) 03.12.41 sec 3. Sinesh Kumar and Vineet Thalod (Rajasthan) 03.13.89 sec
Single scull (women): 1. Shweta Brahmachari (West Bengal) 04.00.86 sec 2. Amandeep Kaur (Punjab) 04.01.89 sec 3. Yumnam Chengloulembi Devi (Manipur) 04.02.61 sec.
ABOUT KHELO INDIA WATER SPORTS FESTIVAL
The Khelo India Water Sports Festival is an addition to the Khelo India calendar. Being organized between August 21-23 at the iconic Dal Lake in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, the KIWSF will feature six sports like rowing, canoeing, kayaking, water skiing, shikara race and dragon boat race. Thirty-six states and Union Territories will take part in the first-ever Games which is an Open age category meet. This water sports carnival will be the second Khelo India event in J&K after the Khelo India Winter Games held in Gulmarg. Launched in 2017-18, Khelo India is a mission to promote sports culture at the grassroots level and also aimed at organized talent identification, structured sporting competitions and infrastructure development.