The quest for Olympic and Paralympic qualification begins in Rio

The American Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta began today in Río de Janeiro. Rowers from all over the continent – Canada, the Caribbean and many countries all the way down to Argentina – have started showing their best cards and great performances, particularly those who raised great expectations as favourites.

After a brief delay due to small technical adjustments, the Para rowers were the first ones on the course. There was a solid victory in the PR1 M1X preliminary race for Michel Muñoz Malagon of Mexico, who won with a comfortable lead ahead of Uruguay, Canada and Paraguay.

Then Argentina pulled off the first place in the PR3 Mix2X preliminary race, finishing ahead of Mexico. All para crews will meet again for the A-final on Saturday, where the winners will be securing their ticket to Paris 2024 – pending final confirmation of the quota obtained by their NPC.

In the women’s single sculls, there was also great racing with two heats, and a great battle in both races for the first two spots – and an automatic qualification for the A-Final. In the first heat, Kenia Lechuga (the March 2024 World Rowing Rower of the Month) came from behind just to cross the line less than 1 second ahead of Argentinian Sol Amaya, who returned to rowing after a long break due to her unversity studies. The next heat saw local favourite, Brazil’s Beatriz Cunha, take first place comfortably ahead of the latest Paraguayan rowing star Alejandra Alonso.

All four athletes will face each other in the A-Final, with two more joining from the repechage that will be raced Friday morning.

Three heats in the men’s single sculls were needed to find the ones advancing to the A/B semifinals. All eyes were on Brazil’s Lucas Verthein, their top sculler, who won his race with almost five seconds ahead of Juan Flores from Mexico, who took second.

In the second heat, former Olympian from Tokyo 2020 in the lightweight men’s double sculls, Bruno Cetraro from Uruguay, won his race by 8 seconds ahead of the strong Cuban sculler, Reidy Cardona.

In the last heat, the young Paraguayan Javier Insfran and Alvaro Torres from Perú took respectively the first and second place. All six rowers have advanced directly to A/B semifinals, with all other athletes competing in the repechage tomorrow.

In the lightweight men’s double sculls, eight crews entered the event and only the winners of each heat advanced directly to the A-final. The experienced combination of Sanhueza and Abaroa from Chile won the first heat with clear water. In the next heat, it was a bit more difficult for the seasoned duo of Colomino and Dickson from Argentina, who struggled to leave the Brazilians to race the repechage for another chance to qualify for the A-Final.

The last race of the morning was the preliminary race for the lightweight women’s double sculls, and it looks like Isidora Niemeyer and Josefa Vila of Chile will be the ones to justify their status of favourites in this event. Peruvian twins Alessia and Valeria Palacios rowed beautifully to second place just a little ahead of Argentina and Brazil who are very level with only 1 second separating them.

Copy and photos thanks to Santiago Fuentes