Chungju ready to host the Asian & Oceanian Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta

The third continental qualification regatta for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games kicks off next week in Chungju, Korea. 66 athletes across 20 nations will be looking to obtain a quota place and continue on their road to Paris through the 2024 World Rowing Asian and Oceanian Continental Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta.

Single Sculls

In the men’s single sculls there are 17 entries – only one of whom competed in this boat class at the 2023 World Rowing Championships. A few athletes will try to achieve a second qualification for the Olympic Games, such as Cris Nievarez of The Philippines, Memo Memo of Indonesia or Shakhboz Kholmurzaem of Azerbaijan, who won two silver medals at the recent Asian Games in China. Amel Younis of Palestine and Bakr al-Dulaimi of Iraq did compete at the 2023 World Rowing Championships and will look to use that international racing experience to their advantage. The field looks very open and hard to predict – which usually leads to crisp and intense racing.

The women’s single sculls features 15 competitors. The name to watch out for is Anna Prakaten of Uzbekistan – the former Russian athlete is the reigning Olympic silver medallist in this boat class, and should be the heavy favourite to get a quota place. Shiho Yonekawa of Japan, who finished right behind Prakaten at the 2023 World Championships, should also be atop the standings. Behind this duo, three spots look to be up for grabs – look for Wing Yan Winne Hung of Hong Kong China to try and qualify again for the Olympics, as she did in 2021.

The PR1 women’s single sculls category will see a battle between five athletes. Two of them – Tomomi Ichikawa of Japan and Sejeong Kim of Korea competed at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic games, and both will be looking to get that only qualification spot available. On the PR1 men’s single sculls side, the field is more open – Priyamal Jayakodi of Sri Lanka has Olympic experience and might be the one name to watch in a four-boat battle.

Double Sculls

The lightweight men’s double sculls features the silver and bronze medallists from the 2022 Asian Games, India’s Arvind Singh and Arjun Lal Jat and Uzbekistan’s Shakhzod Nurmatov and Sobirjon Safaroliyev. The Indians raced this combination in Tokyo, where they finished 11th, and competed at their first-ever A-Final at a World Rowing Cup in 2023. For Uzbekistan, this is an experienced crew that raced at the World Championships – and Safaroliyev did qualify the boat for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Can anyone stop these two crews on their way to Paris?

Ten boats complete the field in the lightweight women’s double sculls, who will all be eyeing those two qualification spots on the line. The combinations from Uzbekistan and Indonesia won silver and bronze medals at the Asian Games – but they will have to race against experienced crews from Vietnam and Japan, that have already competed at the Olympics in 2021. Watch out too for Iran, entering two athletes that won a silver medal at the Asian Games in the women’s quadruple sculls behind the Olympic champions of China.

Amongst a new group of competitors, the only crew in the PR3 mixed double sculls with experience at the World level is the Indian crew of Anita Anita and Narayana Konganapalle, with a top finish of 9th place at the 2023 World Rowing Championships in this boat class. They will race against Thailand and Kazakhstan.

ABOUT QUALIFICATION

Quota places available at this event:

Men’s Single Sculls: 5

Women’s Single Sculls: 5

Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls: 2

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls: 2

PR1 Men’s Single Sculls: 1

PR1 Women’s Single Sculls: 1

PR3 Mixed Double Sculls: 1

Qualification Documents

The Olympic Qualification system can be found here: Olympic Qualification System

The Paralympic Qualification system can be found here: Paralympic Qualification Regulations