So, it’s the year of Olympics and participants all over the world are participating in the qualifiers and giving their best to be a part of the Olympic games of August, 2016.
While Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian women ever to be qualified for the Olympics, Indian Army rower Dattu Bhokanal too qualified for the Rio Olympics after winning silver in the finals of men’s single sculls at the 2016 FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta at Chung-ju in South Korea.
The 25-year-old army-man clocked 7 mins 07.49 seconds in the 2 km course to finish second and qualify for the Rio Olympics. The top seven in the finals qualified for the Rio Games.
Born in Nashik in 1991, Bhokanal comes from a humble background. Dattu Bhokanal joined the Indian army in 2012 with the one-point agenda of earning a decent living for his family. A career in sports was not even on his mind. Soon, he took to rowing at the BEG Centre at Kirkee in Pune and in 2013, he shifted to ARN, Pune for better training. But today, the 25-year-old son of a well-digger from a small village in Nashik district helped India earn a place in the upcoming Olympics.
Under Indian Army’s Mission Olympics, ten soldiers have till now qualified for the Rio Olympics to be held in August. Indian Army has laid out the road map for a concerted vision for maximum qualifications for the Rio Olympics with the aim of ‘finishing strong’ at the podium with medals for the country.
The training of the qualified sportsperson is being carried out through a scientific approach being planned & executed through Army Sports Institute, Pune and Army Marksmanship Unit, Mhow among other institutions under the flagship initiative of Mission Olympics.
According to the official statement, until now ten army soldiers have qualified for the Rio Olympics 2016.
This achievement of Bhokanal proves that apart from being the most adventurous organisation, the Army provides a perfect platform for budding sportsman at the international level too.
