By MARK REY MONTEJO
Joanie Delgaco strengthened her Paris Olympics bid after advancing to the Final A of the World Rowing Asia Oceania Qualification in Chungju, Korea on Saturday, April 20.
Delgaco, 26, clocked 8 minutes and 5.87 seconds to finish second in the semifinal A race in the women’s single sculls and inch closer to one of the berths at stake to Paris.
Only the Top 5 rowers in the six-woman final round will earn an Olympic slot.
Japan’s Shiho Yonekawa topped their group with 8:00.59, while Vietnam’s Hue Phan Thi timed 8:07.94 to also barge into the finals scheduled on Sunday, April 21.
Completing the finalists are Uzbekistan’s Anna Prakaten (7:45.66), Iran’s Fatemeh Mojallal Topraghghale (8:03.47), and Singapore’s Binte Mohamed Rafa’ee Saiyidah Aisyah (8:12.08), who finished in the top 3 of the other semifinal group.
Meanwhile, Tokyo Olympian Cris Nievarez failed to advance in the men’s single sculls final after finishing fifth in the semifinal B race with a time of 7:21.56.
Hong Kong’s Chiu Hin Chun topped his semis group and advanced to the final with 7:07.39, followed by Indonesia’s Memo Memo (7:08.08) and Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev (7:08.87).
The other finalists were Uzbekistan’s Shakhboz Kholmurzaev (7:16.06), Indonesia’s Balraj Panwar (7:16.29) and Thailand’s Premanut Wttananusith (7:16.48).
