Saudi rower Husein Alireza finished second in Repechage 3 on Saturday morning to qualify for the quarterfinals of the Men’s Single Sculls competition at Tokyo 2020 and extend his Olympic dream for one more day.
The repechage races at Tokyo’s Sea Forest Waterway gave the athletes who did not finish in the top two qualifying positions in Friday’s heats a second chance to reach Sunday’s quarterfinals and this time the 27-year-old grabbed his chance with both hands.
Alireza’s time of 8:06:78 was enough to place him behind winner Peter Purcell-Gilpin of Zimbabwe and more than 10 seconds ahead of Riilio Rii of Vanuatu in third.
“It was great race, I knew it was going to be tight,” he said. “I knew it was going to be close with [Rii]. My finishes are generally stronger than my middle thousand, so I knew if I could keep the distance at a minimum I could maybe take him at the end. Towards the 1,500 mark I started seeing his puddles and I went for it and thankfully we’re now in the quarterfinals, which is great considering my injury.”
During a training camp in California in May, Alireza had suffered a serious injury to his shoulder and lungs which threatened to keep him out of Tokyo 2020. He recovered sufficiently to take part but has said that he is not at full fitness yet.
“It’s still very difficult to breathe, that’s why I’ve got a slightly slower middle thousand,” he said. “I’m able to sprint at the end, just close my eyes and go for it. Lung capacity is still down about 10 percent, but we’re still getting good results and I’m really happy about that.”
Alireza’s bid for a semifinal place will take place on Sunday morning (5.40am KSA) in the Mens Single Sculls Quarterfinal 1. He will be racing against Quentin Antognelli of Monaco, Gennaro Alberto di Mauro of Italy, Stefanos Ntouskos of Greece, Kjetil Borch of Norway and Abdelkhalek Elbana of Egypt.
