Ukogu makes history, hits semifinals in Rowing

Nigeria’s only rower at the on-going Olympic Games, Chierika Ukogu has a lot to celebrate here in Rio, following her record breaking performances yesterday, when she became the first Nigerian woman in history to qualify for the semifinals of the women’s Single Sculls Rowing event at the Olympics.

Ukogu competed in quarterfinal 3, rowing in lane 2, to finish 5th in 7:54.44, with the race winner being Denmark’s Fie Udby Erichsen, who clocked 7:33.22.

Another African, Zimbabwe’s Micheen Thornycroft finished runner-up in 7:34.38 while Canada’s Carling Zeeman was 3rd in 7:34.52.

In the first 500m, Ukogu clocked 1:52.57 and then went on to 3:51.77 in 1000m, in the next 1500m her time was 5:52.26 which culminated in the 7:54.44 she posted.

Although only the top three in each Heat automatically qualified to semifinals A/B, Ukogu’s time was ranked 18 overall in the quarterfinals, which was enough to book a spot in semifinal C/D 1.

The US-born athlete will hope to get a berth in final A with a much faster time, when she competes today by 3:30pm (Nigerian Time), against Lithuania’s Lina Saltyte and Sweden’s Anna Malvina Svennung.