Trinidad and Tobago's Chow places 4th in Olympic heat, qualifies for repechage

ROWER Felice Aisha Chow kickstarted Trinidad and Tobago's campaign at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, placing fourth in the women's single sculls heat two on Thursday night. Although she did not automatically qualify for the quarterfinal, she still has a chance to secure a spot in the next round through the repechage.

This is Chow's second Olympic appearance. She made her debut for TT at the last Summer Games in Brazil.

Her race began at 8.40 pm and she faced competitors from Uganda, Singapore, Greece, Ireland, Mexico and Singapore.

Chow clocked a time of 8:02:02, finishing fourth, ahead of Uganda's Kathleen Noble (8:21:85) and Singapore's Joan Poh (8:31:12).

Ireland's Sanita Puspure placed first in 7:46:08, followed by Mexico's Kenia Lechuga, who clocked 7:54:21 to finish second, and Greece's Anneta Kyridou finished third in 7:54:28.

There were six heats in total and the three fastest athletes from each heat automatically qualify for the quarterfinal.

The others, 14 in total, will compete in the repechage for a chance to move on to the next round.

Of those 14 athletes, Chow clocked the fastest time, faster than Puerto Rico's Veronica Toro Arana, who finished third in heat three with a time of 8:11:57.

The women's single sculls repechage are set to begin at 8 am Japan time on Saturday, which is 7 pm on Friday in TT.

Chow will face Korea's Hyejeong Jeong, Nicaragua's Evidelia Gonzalez Jarquin and Nigeria's Esther Toko in repechage two from 8.10 am Japan time on Saturday, 7.10 pm on Friday in TT.

The two fastest in each of the three repechage heats will move on to the quarterfinal.