CHENNAI: All the races scheduled on Day 1 of the World Rowing Asia Oceania Continental Olympic and Paralympic Qualifying Regatta in Tokyo got cancelled due to inclement weather on Wednesday. They have now been rescheduled for Thursday.
However, the weather forecast predicts rain even on Friday, the day that the semifinals and finals are scheduled, and this might ruin chances of Indian rowers qualifying for the Tokyo Games.
“Races got cancelled because of extremely choppy weather,” Rajlaxmi Singh Deo, president of Rowing Federation of India, told this daily.
Indian male and female rowers were scheduled to compete in the heats for single and double sculls on Wednesday.
Jakar Khan, who is expected to make the Olympic cut, and Khushpreet Kaur were scheduled to compete in single sculls heats in men’s and women’s categories respectively.
Arjun Jat and Arvind Singh were scheduled to compete in men’s double sculls heats while Vindhya Sankat and Rukmani Dangi were named for women’s double sculls heats.
“I am really worried because we have been encountering choppy weather every day. Practice has also been delayed every day. Just two more days are remaining in the competition, so hopefully things resume tomorrow (Thursday). Otherwise, we will be in a big trouble,” said the RFI president.
She further said, “Tomorrow (Thursday), heats will be organised while semifinals and finals will be held on Friday. Weather forecast is showing a lot of rain on Friday. We still have 48 hours and hopefully it all clears up.”
Only a few Chinese rowers have qualified for the Tokyo Games so far, making the event extremely important for the rowers from the Asian continent.
If the races do not happen due to bad weather, it will be a big setback of rowers from the continent. “I don’t know about automatic qualification. Let’s hope races happen,” signed off Deo.