Indian rower Dattu Bhokanal qualified for the quarterfinals of the single sculls event with a third-place finish in the heats on Saturday. His quarterfinal round will be held on August 9.
The top three rowers from the six rounds of heats make it directly to the quarter-finals. Dattu finds himself placed 15th among the 18 rowers who have made the quarters.
Featuring in the first heat of the day which kicked off the Games action, Dattu finished the 2000m race with a timing of 7:21.67s. For the first 500m, the 25 year-old rower from Maharashtra was in second position. He finished behind Angel Fournier Rodriguez of Cuba (7:06.89s) and Mexico's Juan Carlos Cabrera (7:08.27s).
Bhokanal was in second position for the first 500m of the race but started to lag behind once Carlos in lane 2 picked up his pace around the 700m mark.
The quarterfinals will have four heats featuring 18 direct qualifiers and the fastest six rowers from the repechage rounds.
The 25 year-old rower from Maharashtra qualified for the Olympics with a silver medal at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic qualification.