Olympics: Uganda's Kathleen Noble’s Rowing Medal Chase Ends

Uganda’s rower Kathleen Grace Noble’s chance for any medal in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games has today come to an end after the athlete fell short in the Repechage contest of the Women’s single sculls race this morning.

Noble finished a distant 3rd in Heat Three of the Repechage which buried her chances of qualifying for quarter finals. She posted 8:36:1 behind Venega Cancio Milena who won the cruise and Hung Wing Yan Winne who came second. The time was fifteen seconds below her personal best of 8:21.85 which she posted in the opening race.

“I recorded a lower time but every race comes with its own demands and expectations, I am happy to continue exploiting the opportunity and I look forward to the E/F Semifinals tomorrow,” Kathleen briefly said after the race. 

 

The US-based Ugandan athlete was making a second attempt through the Repechage round which offers rowers a second chance to qualify for the quarterfinals with rowers who had good times in each heat where they parade to compete for their last chances.

She had initially been placed fifth in heat 2 of the women single sculls on Friday morning, where she fell to rowing stars from Northern Ireland and Mexico respectively. 

Here she posted 8:21.85 in the 2000m rowing race which put her in the fifth position in a heat won by world champion Sanita Pupsure from Ireland who posted 7:46:08.

According to the games format, she was supposed to go to Repechage round where she was supposed to tussle out in a second attempt to compete for the remaining quarter final slots but she never made it. The first two rowers took the slots.

Now, Noble is headed to competing in the semifinals E/F on Sunday as per the games format. These semifinals will be used determine the ultimate rankings for rowers who are out of the medal contention. She will therefore fight for better world rankings.

Noble 26, will now take on Nigeria’s Toko Esther, Qatar’s Abujbara Tala and Sudanese Khogali Esraa in semifinal E/F tomorrow on Sunday. Apparently she holds Uganda’s record which stands at 8:21.85 she posted in her first competition. She is behind Namibia’s Maike Diekmann who already qualified for the quarter finals after finishing third in heat 5 during their opener. Diekmann posted 7:56.37 to earn her a spot in the quarterfinals.  

Noble’s qualification and participation still remains historical as she is the first ever rower to represent Uganda in the Olympic games, therefore her best time she posted remains Uganda’s first-ever rowing mark in the Olympic games.