By Freeman Makopa
ZIMBABWE rowers Patrick and Rory Plunket continue to strike the right cords on the international stage, after beating USA and Netherlands in their hard fought race to book a place for World Rowing championship semi-finals.
Rowing Association of Zimbabwe president Andrew Lorimer hailed the duo or their efforts and added that participating at such events help equip the rowers with skills to face stronger opponents at world stage.
“I am delighted to say that Zimbabwe has had an even better day today on the second day of the Netherlands in their hard fought race today and winning a semi- final place in the A/B Finals of the Boys Double Scull event on Saturday (today).
“The chance to compete against the best junior rowers in the world is a fantastic opportunity for our Zimbabwe junior rowers to build their skills and performance and this is a great international event to build their profiles” he said
Rory and Patrick who came second to Australia in their opening heat in the Boys Double Scull event beating Greece, China, Uzbekistan and Japan have shown a great improvement from the first day and are eyeing to reach finals.
The Plunket’s finished the 2 000 metre race in first place in best time for them of 6 minutes 30.85 seconds.
The Netherlands came a close second in a time of 6 minutes 31,82 seconds, with Thailand, the USA and Japan taking third, fourth and fifth places respectively.
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This win guaranteed that they have qualified to race in the A/B Semi-finals .
The results of this next race on Saturday will determine whether they race in the A Final or the B Final of the Junior World Rowing Championships on Sunday 11th August 2019.
In the girls category, Lorryn Bass was the third Zimbabwean to compete at the second day of racing at the Junior Worlds. In her Girls Single Scull event today Bass had to win first or second place against Tunisia, Algeria, China, the Czech Republic and Latvia to be able to progress to the semi-finals for the A and B heats of this event.
In similarly tough rowing conditions, Bass came fourth in her race being beaten by athletes from China, Algeria and the Czech Republic.
Lorimer said the team draws the inspiration from the success achieved by the Netball team. “Zimbabwe’s junior rowers have been inspired by the success achieved by the Zimbabwe Netball “Gems” at the recent Netball World Championships in Liverpool, England and they are determined to give of their best in the final days of the Junior World Rowing Championships in Tokyo, Japan,” he added
The Junior World Rowing Championships is being held as the test event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Para-Olympic Games.
Zimbabwe is one of the five African countries being represented at this Junior World Championships with Algeria, Kenya, South Africa and Tunisia also competing.
