Ugandan’s only Rowling athlete at the Japan Olympics Grace Kathleen Noble finished 5th in Heat 2 of Women’s Single Sculls.
This was during the opening round of the event at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, Japan on Friday.
Kathleen finished with a time of 8:25.85, beating Singapore’s Joan Poh who finished last with a time.
Kathleen who is Uganda’s first ever rower at the games said she is relieved to have overcome the first stage.
“I think today went well…I was very relieved this morning. Often on race days I wake up and I feel very sick and I have no appetite but this morning I woke up and I felt good. On the starting blocks usually I’m shaking but today I wasn’t,” Kathleen told Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) media team.
“With the result I was happy. I’m happy with how my race went. There’s a lot very fast people in my heat and I wasn’t expecting to beat anyone. I was happy to come out 5th out of 6.”
Ireland’s Sanita Puspuse won the race with a time of 7:46.08 followed by Mexico’s Kenia Lechuga who managed a time of 7:54.21.
The Repechange event will happen Saturday, 24th July and it forms a pathway to the finals of the main event.
For Uganda, the Olympics proper will run from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan with 25 Ugandan athletes (13 females and 12 males) set to be in the mix.
Uganda has previously won 7 medals at the Olympics with the last one coming in 2012.
