It can be a fine line between qualifying for the Olympics or not.
Island rowers, with their hopes of going to the 2016 Rio Summer Games hanging in the balance, scraped into the semifinals at the 2015 world rowing championships Wednesday in France.
This year’s world championships are also the official Olympic qualifier for Rio 2016. Crews that don’t make at least the world semifinals can not qualify for Rio, which made the quarter-finals and repechages tense.
With three boats from their women’s lightweight double quarter-final race advancing to the semifinals, Victoria rowers Lindsay Jennerich and Patrica Obee hung tough to cross the line third behind China and New Zealand.
Wild swings are not uncommon in lightweight rowing, as attested by Jennerich and Obee’s free-fall from winning the silver medal at the 2014 world championships to placing 14th at the last World Cup series race this summer.
“My last experience at a regatta was having to race the [World Cup] ‘C’ final,” said Stelly’s grad Obee, in a statement.
“I did not want that to be repeated.”
She made sure it wasn’t, and that the dream of Rio still flickers.
Martin Barakso of Nanaimo and Michael Evans also fought off a quarter-final challenge in the men’s pair for the third-place spot behind Britain and Italy to advance to the semifinals and also keep those samba rhythms beating in their heads.
It was the same story for the Elk Lake-based Canadian men’s quad — composed of Matt Buie, Julien Bahain, Will Dean and 2012 London silver-medallist Rob Gibson — and third behind Germany and Lithuania in the repechage to advance to the semifinals and keep alive their hopes of Rio.
The Elk Lake-based Canadian four — Kai Langerfeld of Parksville, Tim Schrijver and 2012 London Olympics silver-medallists Conlin McCabe and Will Crothers — won their opening race Sunday and advanced directly to the semifinal round, which begins today.
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