Single scullers making waves in Paris

The single sculls are the biggest boat classes at the 2024 Olympic Regatta, meaning more nations are represented than in any other boat class. For many nations, it is the only boat class a nation is represented in here in Paris, but that representation is huge, and sometimes quite historic.

Soaad Alfaqaan is the first female rower from Kuwait at the Olympic Games and had the honour of being the flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony. She hopes that she will be able to inspire others;

“I am the first, so I hope this opens a lot of doors for young athletes to pursue their dreams. I started this dream much later in life, and here I am at the Olympics only three years into my rowing career, so I hope this inspires others to dream big.”

“I get a call from my brothers and my dad every day saying, you know, you’re kind of becoming famous, everyone’s asking ‘who is this?’

“That’s the goal – not fame but the goal is to open the new generation’s eyes to sports, there’s bigger things out there. Goal achieved, hopefully.”

Alfaqaan finished third in the semifinal E/F today (Monday 29 July) meaning she will race in the Final E on Friday, racing for places 25-30.

Hin Chun Chiu, who was World Rowing’s Rower of the Month in June 2024 qualified for Paris at the Asian & Oceania Qualification Regatta in April this year and made history at World Rowing Cup II in May this year when he won the first ever gold medal at World level for Hong Kong China – his win was in the lightweight men’s single sculls, but he is racing openweight here in Paris. He has already secured his place in the quarterfinals and will race tomorrow, Tuesday 30 July.

“I am very happy with the result and making the quarter. It is history for Hong Kong rowing because we have never made the quarterfinal before in the open event. I heard some commentators praise my performance from yesterday and today so I am very happy with that and especially thank you for the supporters. So many messages!”

“We didn’t have any expectation int he World Cup to get any ranking because I participate in the lightweight single for a few years. This time, I win the World Cup so it proved our training – our sweat and work – has paid off.”

Twenty four year old Adriana Sanguineti made history for Peru in the repechages of the women’s single sculls when she finished second, securing progression to the quarterfinals. That will mean a finish position of top 24 for her and the highest previous finish position for Peru is 31st.

Somewhat unusually, the men’s single sculls has one more entry than the women’s boat class. That additional entry is from Sudan – they were allocated a slot after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was looking to achieve gender equality across the entirety of athlete numbers across the Olympic Games. Sudan’s sculler is Abdalla Ahmed who lives and trains in Tunisia, and is a recipient of the IOC Olympic Solidarity Scholarship.

Ahmed finished fifth in the Semifinal E/F and will race next in the Final F.

Stephen Cox is representing Zimbabwe, one of the smallest nations here at the Olympic Games. Stephen finished second in his semifinal and will progress to the Final E, but is happy with his performance and hopes to inspire younger rowers in Zimbabwe.

“I hope that my being here is enough to spur some of the younger generations on and show that they can chase their dreams and they can get here if they put the work in to it.”

“I literally feel like the entire country of Zimbabwe is pushing us on. There’s only seven athletes here so you get a lot of messages and lot of thoughts.”

“I haven’t performed badly at all. I have performed how I have in training. The standard is incredible this year. There are people in my final, the E final, that were top of the C final in Tokyo. That’s credit to World Rowing; the qualification process has changed and it’s now literally the top of each continent and you can see the difference it’s made in terms of the calibre. The best should be here.”

The finals D, E and F of the single sculls will take place on the morning (Paris time) of Friday 2 August 2024.