The Indian quartet of Birbal Singh, Jaggit Singh, Johnson Xavier and Tarlochan Singh churned the placid waters of Map Pracham Reservoir to claim third place behind China and Japan.

India won its first medal in the event yesterday when the foursome of Binu Kurien Kaleekkalethu, Kasam Khan, Pappi Singh and Rampal Singh clinched the bronze in the open coxless fours.

The Indian quartet, who had made the final after claiming the second spot in the repechage race on December 17 clocking six minutes, 17.54 seconds behind Japan, came up with 6:25.28.

China's Binggui Zhang, Dai Haizhen, Sun Jun and Nie Junliang claimed the gold with 6:15.97 and Japan (Murai Shinpei, Nishioka Tatsumori, Mizutani Tatsuya and Okamoto Yukuo, (6:21.15) took the silver.

Korea and Uzbekistan, who hold bigger reputation thanIndia, and Kazakhstan were pushed behind India in that order. It was a second Asian Games medal for Jagjit Singh who, alongwith Rajinder Prahlad Shilke, had claimed the coxless pairs bronze medal at the 1994 Hiroshima Games.