24 Apr 2016
Semifinals at Asia Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta
Men’s single scull
Semifinal One Korea, Thailand and Indonesia quickly separated themselves from the rest and had their own race with the lead changing between Kim of Korea and Memo of Indonesia.
Qualifiers: KOR THA INA
Semifinal Two The four scullers from India, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Iraq were away by themselves by the halfway mark. They approached the final 300m with nothing really between them. Yakovlev of Kazakhstan and Bhokanal of India then started to pull away leaving the real battle for the vital third place between Al-Khafaji of Iraq and Kholmurzaev of Uzbekhistan. In the end, it was Al-Khafaji who maintained his composure in the sprint to the finish.
Qualifiers: KAZ IND IRQ
Women’s single scull
Semifinal One Five boats in the hunt until the 1000m with no clear water between any of them. The third quarter saw the eventual place-getters move away from the contenders and they maintained order from the 1300m with Huang of Chinese Taipei first home with a boat length to spare from Javar of Iran and Germanovich of Kazakhstan.
Qualifiers: TPE IRI KAZ
Semifinal Two Four boats in contention for most of the race with Pham Thi of Vietnam leading until the final sprint to the line. Kim of Korea enjoyed the local support in the grandstand to lift her rating and take out the race by a boat length from the pace setter Vietnam with Yuliawati of Indonesia coming home in third place. Abujbara of Qatar felt the effects of the early pace where she held 2nd and 3rd for most of the race but she fell away over the last 500m to allow the fast finishing Indonesian to pass her . Still, Abujbara has the fastest time of all the qualifiers for the B-final and so she is still in serious contention for the seventh qualification place for the Rio Olympic Games.
Qualifiers: KOR VIE INA
Weather for finals day Monday 25 April, is forecast to be fine with a very slight cross-head breeze of between 1 – 1.5 mps.
Full results here
Copy thanks to Lee Spear