Youth Olympic Rowing: Mixed fortunes for Singapore’s Joanna Chan and Nadzrie Hamzah

Story by Wong Hong Yong/Red Sports. Photos by Marvin Lowe/Red Sports

Marina Reservoir, Sunday, August 15, 2010 — It was a day of mixed fortunes for the Singaporean rowing pair of Joanna Chan and Nadzrie Hyckell Hamzah.

While Joanna Chan came in a credible 4th with a timing of 4:04.54 in Heat 1 of the junior women’s single sculls competition, Nadzrie could only muster a last-place finish with a timing of 3:40.00 for heat 4 of the junior men’s single sculls.

Only the winner of each of the four heats qualifies directly for the semi-finals A/B, while the rest will get a second chance to qualify through a repechage on Monday. The first three rowers in each of the two semi-finals will go through to an A final to determine the medals and places 4th to 6th. Rowers ranking 4th to 6th in the semi-finals will compete in a B final to determine positions 7th to 12th.

Rowers that do not qualify for the semi-finals A/B through the repechage will go to other semi-finals to qualify for the C and D finals and to determine positions 13th to 24th.

The first heat of the day involved Singapore’s Joanna Chan but from the start it was a race between Ainee Hernandez Delgado of Cuba and Annick Taselaar of the Netherlands. Taselaar pulled ahead of everyone with Hernandez close behind.

At the 500m mark, Hernandez was only 0.66 seconds behind Taselaar, who looked to be tiring as her strokes weren’t as long as before. Meanwhile, Joanna Chan, after her struggling start, seemed to have found her stride as she pulled ahead of Jovan Arsic of Serbia and Jana Hausberger of Austria, and was chasing Dirik Alara of Turkey.

Taselaar could not sustain her initial sprint and Hernandez put in a solid sprint for the final 250m to pull ahead and finish first, 1.64 seconds ahead. Hernandez qualified directly for the semi-finals with a time of 3:46.93.

In Heat four of the junior men’s single sculls, it was more straightforward as right from the horn, Rolandas Mascinskas of Lithuania blazed past his competition with power strokes and stayed ahead throughout the initial 500m sprint right to the end.

Ivanov Lurii of Ukraine looked like he would catch up at one point during the final 250mbut it was not to be. Mascinskas finished in 3:22.68 with Lurii a further 2.39 seconds behind in 3:25.68.

Nadzrie never really recovered after being left behind by the competition as he eventually finished last with a timing of 3:40.00, a massive 17.32 seconds behind the winner.

When asked about his performance, Nadzrie said: “I expected a better performance and it was pretty disappointing for me. I hope to redeem myself on Monday (in the repechage) and hopefully qualify for the semi finals.”

Qualified for Semi-Finals (men’s single sculls)
Felix Bach (Germany) – 3:22.25
Loan Prundeanu (Romania) – 3:22.59
Andre Redr (Slovakia) – 3:27.54
Rolandas Mascinskas (Lithuania) – 3:22.68

Qualified directly for Semi-Finals (women’s single sculls)
Hernandaz Delgado Ainee (Cuba) – 3:46.93
Kober Noemie (France) -3:50.09
Sievers Judith (Germany) – 3:45.41
Fleissnerova Kristyna (Czech Republic) – 3:49.37