Zimbabwe’s rowing Olympian Micheen Thornycroft will be gunning to secure a 2016 Rio Olympics qualification when she lines up in the World Rowing Championships single sculls semi-final in Aiguebelette, France, today.
By Munyaradzi Madzokere
The 28-year-old rowing star is in the first semi-final where she competes against six other athletes for a place in the final slated for later in the day which would see her ultimately booking her ticket to Brazil for next year’s Olympic Games.
Olympics qualification is guaranteed for best nine out of the 12 boats that have made it into the semi-finals.
Thornycroft advanced to the penultimate stage of the ongoing global rowing championships on Wednesday following a spirited performance which saw her finish third in the third quarter-final group behind Belarusian Tatsiana Kukhta and Sanita Puspure from Ireland.
Following her success two days ago, she immediately wrote on her Facebook page:
“Thanks for the amazing support . . . had an epic race! Did everything I could and this time it was enough to get me through . . . now (have) to recover and get ready for the semis on Friday,” she said.
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The 12 rowers who made it to the semi-finals have been placed in two groups of six where the top three boats will progress to the single sculls finals and a chance to win the world rowing top prize.
While the Zimbabwean athlete will be keen to progress to the finals of the competition that concludes today, the motivation will be to qualify to represent the country at the Olympic Games for the second time in a row after her appearance at the London Games in 2012.
The athlete from Marondera is currently based at a High Performance Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, where she has been training with some of the best rowers in the world.
She has been one of Zimbabwe’s prominent flag bearers on the international rowing stage having represented the country at most of the top events since 2006.
