Indian soldiers win first World Rowing Cup gold

Indian soldiers Havildars Lakshay and Ujjwal Kumar Singh won India’s first gold medal at a World Rowing Cup on 27 June 2026. The medal came at World Rowing Cup Stage 3 in Lucerne, Switzerland, in the Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls (LM2x) event.

World Rowing Cup

The World Rowing Cup is an annual international rowing series organised by World Rowing, the international federation for the sport. The series includes multiple stages held at different venues, and athletes compete in boat classes such as single sculls, double sculls, and coxless fours.

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls, abbreviated as LM2x, is a rowing event in which two rowers compete in a sculling boat. In sculling, each rower uses two oars, and lightweight categories apply body-mass limits fixed by World Rowing regulations.

Army Rowing Node and Indian military sport

Lakshay and Ujjwal Kumar Singh are serving members of the Indian Army and are associated with the Army Rowing Node in Pune. The Indian contingent at the regatta had 18 members, including 17 from the Indian Army and one from the Indian Navy.

Race result in Lucerne

The Indian pair finished the race in 6 minutes and 26.09 seconds. Hong Kong finished in 6:27.14, and the Netherlands finished in 6:27.36, with the result decided by a photo finish.

Important Facts for Exams

• Lucerne is a city in Switzerland and a regular venue for international rowing events.
• World Rowing is the international governing body for rowing and coastal rowing.
• Sculling events use two oars per rower, while sweep rowing uses one oar per rower.
• India’s first Olympic rowing medal came at the 2012 London Olympics in the men’s doubles sculls event.

Related factual context

The Army Rowing Node in Pune is a military sports facility linked with rowing training in India. The Indian team had missed World Cup II because of visa issues and received Swiss visas five days before the competition.