Rower Felice Chow wins Olympic D final, finishes 19th overall

TRINIDAD AND Tobago rower Felice Aisha Chow concluded her Tokyo 2020 campaign with a 19th place finish in the women’s singles sculls D final on Friday (Thursday evening TT time).

Competing out of lane three, the 44-year-old won the 19th to 24th place final by clocking seven minutes 48.06 seconds at Sea Forest Waterway.

She beat to the line, with an over four-second lead, Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Ting Huang (7:52.18), Paraguayan Alejandra Alonso (7:55.63), Puerto Rican Veronica Toro Arana (7:57.22), Hong Kong, China’s Winne Wing Yan (8:02.79) and Korean Hyejeong Jeong (8:06.13) respectively.

The remaining rowers will contest for places 13 to 18, seven to 12 and first to sixth place in the C, B and A finals respectively.

Chow’s performance on Thursday saw her improve on her 2016 Olympic debut placing of 22nd in the same event.

During her final race, Chow was quick to get out of the blocks but trailed early leader Alonso after the first 500 metres. However, the San Francisco, United States-based rower soon took control of the race by the halfway mark (1,000 metres) and maintained her position for the remaining distance.

Chow began her campaign at the Summer Games by placing fourth (8:02.02) in the women’s single sculls heat two last Thursday.

She did not automatically qualify for the next round and was forced to contest the repechage heat for a final chance of advancing.

There, the TT athlete placed first (8:15.94) in repechage heat two on Friday to secure a spot in the quarter-finals.

One day later, Chow placed fifth (8:21.23) in her quarter-final heat and missed out on progressing to the semi-final round.

She then contested the C/D final, on Wednesday, and placed fourth (7:45.14), thus qualifying her for the D final.

Chow is the oldest female Olympian to represent TT and the only athlete to ever secure qualification in rowing. At the Americas qualifying (Olympic) regatta, Chow placed third and earned her second Olympic shot.

She was also third at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.