FELICE AISHA CHOW, the 39-year-old rower, will be the first Trinidad and Tobago competitor in action at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The oldest athlete among the 32-member TT contingent will be at the Lagoon Rodrigo de Freitas, in the district of Lagoa, which is located in the southern area of Rio.
In the women’s single sculls, Chow will be in the sixth and last First Round heat today from 9.20 am.
The American-based Chow will create history today as the first TT rower to participate at the Olympic Games.
She will go up against Emma Twigg of New Zealand, Gabriela Mosqueira of Paraguay, Michelle Pearson of Bermuda and Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus.
The first three finishers in each of the six heats will advance to the quarter-final phase on Tuesday while the remaining entrants will feature in the repecharge tomorrow.
Chow’s manager Merryl See Tai told Newsday on Wednesday that rough waters will suit the US-based TT athlete who is accustomed to training in those conditions while her rivals would likely not be.
Some of the competitors in the women’s single sculls include Kim Brennan (Australia), Kenia Lechuga (Mexico), Kim Ye-ji (South Korea), Anna Svennung (Sweden), Micheen Thornycroft (Zimbabwe), Emily Morley (Bahamas) in Heat One; Gevvie Stone (United States), Dewi Yuliawati (Indonesia), Lina Saltyte (Lithuania), Mahsa Javar (Iran), Fie Erichsen (Denmark), Lucia Palermo (Argentina) in Heat Two; Phuttharaksa Nikree (Thailand), Camila Valle (Peru), Carling Zeeman (Canada), Nadia Negm (Egypt) and Sanita Puspure (Ireland).
Rounding off the field of first round entrants are Svetlana Germanovich (Kazakhstan), Jeannine Gmelin (Switzerland), Huang Yi-ting (Chinese Taipei), Saiyidah Aisyah (Singapore), Duan Jingli (China) in Heat Four; Magdalena Lobnig (Austria), Chierika Ukogu (Nigeria), Amina Rouba (Algeria), Miroslava Knapkova (Czech Republic) and Claire Akossiwa (Togo).
In related news, another North American-based TT athlete, Canadian-born gymnast Marisa Dick, will compete in the women’s artistic (individual all-around) category tomorrow.
In a video posted online yesterday, Marisa thanked TT for its support and said it “really makes me work harder in the gym and go out there and make my country proud and really represent us as well as I can.” TT sailor Andrew Lewis will be in action on Monday, in the men’s dinghy.