Latin American Olympic crews determined

Held in Tigre, Argentina (near Buenos Aires), the regatta attracted a huge amount of interest on the final day of the three-day regatta with about 2,000 people packing the shoreline.

The interest from Argentina was well-founded as the host nation finished first in the lightweight women’s double and second in both the lightweight men’s double and men’s single. They also finished fourth in the women’s single, a position good enough to qualify for the London Olympic Games.

A total of 17 Olympics spots were available from the four boat classes.

Qualifiers
Women’s single sculls
Five boats qualified for this event with Cuba’s Yariulvis Cobas Garcia leading the way. Cobas raced in the women’s double at last year’s Pan Am Games and finished first. Now in the single she set the standard finishing three seconds ahead of Olympian Camila Vargas Palomo of El Salvador. This will be Garcia’s first Olympic Games. It will also be third placed Deborah Oakley’s (MEX) venture into international competition with Lucia Palermo of Argentina and Kissya Cataldo da Costa of Brazil taking out the final two qualifying spots.

Men’s single sculls
This event had six boats qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games, meaning that everyone who made the final would be going to London. Pan American Games silver medallist, Patrick Loliger Salas of Mexico was the clear winner finishing six seconds ahead of Santiago Fernandez of Argentina in second. This is a great comeback for Fernandez who retired from competitive rowing after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Fernandez, 35, is a very accomplished sculler and can boast a fourth-place finish from the Athens Olympics.
Peru’s Victor Aspillaga came in third after sitting at the back of the field for most of the race. Aspillaga raced as a lightweight internationally last season and London will be his first Olympic Games. Right behind Aspillaga was Oscar Vasquez Ochoa of Chile with Anderson Nocetti (Brazil) and Roberto Lopez (El Salvador) rounding out the qualifiers.

Lightweight women’s double sculls
Coming through from the heats it looked as this event would be the most tightly fought of the four events. A top three finish was needed to earn a qualifying spot. At the line there was barely a quarter of a second separating Brazil and Argentina. Argentina’s Milka Kraljev and Clara Rohner were first with Luana Bartholo de Assis and lightweight World Champion Fabiana Beltrame of Brazil coming in second.
Cuba’s Yaima Velazquez Falcon and Yoslaine Dominguez Cedeno came through in third after leading at the start of the race. Velazquez and Dominguez were second at last year’s Pan Am Games finishing behind Mexico’s Perez Rul and Ramirez whose fourth-place finish means that they did not qualify for London.

Lightweight men’s double sculls
Three spots were open for qualification in this event and, like the lightweight women’s double, Mexico was the unlucky fourth despite having won at last year’s Pan American Games. Instead, at Tigre, Cuba’s Manuel Suarez Barrios and Yunior Perez Aguilera were in first. Suarez, 22, raced last season in the lightweight four while Perez, 30, is a regular in the lightweight double and at the Beijing Olympics he finished sixth in this event.

Mario Cejas and Miguel Mayol of Argentina came through from fourth position with a sprint that put them into second place ahead of the final qualifying boat, Uruguay’s Rodolfo Anibal Collazo Tourn and Emiliano Dumestre Guaraglia. Mexico’s unlucky fourth was just half a second back.

Cejas and Mayol are unusual in that both of them only came back to international rowing in 2010 and 2009 respectively after taking several years off from the sport. This will be their first Olympic Games.  Collazo and Dumestre first raced together in 2010 with Dumestre being the junior member of the double with two-time Olympian Collazo.

The Final Olympic Qualification Regatta will be held in Lucerne, Switzerland from 20-23 May 2012.

For full results please click here.