Cuban Fournier reaches semi-finals in men´s single sculls

Angel Fournier continues his way to the first Olympic medal of Cuban rowing when winning his quarterfinals heat of the men´s single sculls event of Rio 2016, in this Brazilian city.

In competition held at Rodrigo de Freitas Lake, and as in the preliminaries stage, Fournier dominated actions during the two thousand meters of the race, on this occasion with time of 6: 51,890 minutes, followed distantly by Australian Rhys Grant (6: 55.140 ) and Norwegian Nils Jakobhoff (6: 57,940), in that order.

Angel Fournier scored the fourth fastest qualifying time, surpassed only by Croat Damir Martin (6: 44.44), New Zealander Mahe Drysdale (6: 46.51) and Belgian Hannes Obreno (6: 48.90).

The other athletes who also advanced to the semifinals of this event were Alan Campbell (GBR-6: 49.41), Juan Carlos Cabrera (MEX-6: 50.04), Ondrej Synek (CZE-6: 50.51), Abdelkhalek Elbanna (EGY-6: 50.82), Natan Wegrzycki-Szymczyk (POL-6: 53.52) and Stanislau Shcharbachenia (BLR-6: 55.19).

The Cuban rower told reporters that everything was going as planned, as I won the first two races, and I'm ready for the rest, he said.

On Thursday my main rivals will be Czech Ondrej Synek and Croatian Damir Martin, and we should be the three qualified to the A final, accompanied by three other rowers from the other semifinal, Fournier noted.

The other semifinal will include athletes from Poland, Great Britain, Belgium, New Zealand, Australia and Belarus.

The favorites of that race are Mahe Drysdale from New Zealand, British Alan Campbell and Belgian Hannes Obreno.

Cuban rowers also compete today in the lightweight women´s double sculls through Yislena Hernandez and Licet Hernandez, and Liosbel Hernandez and Raul Hernandez in the lightweight men´s double sculls, but in the repechages.