Cox optimistic of top finish
ZIMBABWE’S rower at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games Stephen Cox will be chasing a top spot finish in the Men’ Single Sculls E Final today at the Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium to get a better overall ranking.
The race is expected at 09:54.
Cox qualified for the E Final when coming second on Monday in the Semi-final E/F 2 in 7 minutes 36.59 seconds over the 2000m distance.
This morning Cox faces, Dara Alizadeh from Bermuda, who won Semi-final E/F 2 on Monday as well as Thailand’s Premanut Wattananusith, who came third in the same semi-final heat.
The other rowers making up today’s E Final are Kazakhstan’s Vladislav Yakovlev, who came first in Semi-final E/F 1 with a time of 7 minutes 26.20 seconds.
Mohamed Taieb of Tunisia and Memo Memo from Indonesia, who were second and third in Semi-final E/F 1 completed the line-up.
Cox has made it clear he would want to win today’s Final E and is aware it’s not going to be an easy task.
“So hopefully I can get the win in the E Final. So, I am hoping to win the final at least, we will see on the day.
“I think the E Final is very competitive. Some of the guys in the E Final this year were in the C Final last Olympics in Tokyo. So, the competition is very high this year and hopefully, I can beat these guys,” said Cox.
After a three-day break from racing, having competed for three consecutive days - from last Saturday up to Monday, he will be hoping for a better time as well.
Andrew Lorimer, who is the rowing manager here, said they would have wanted to see Cox in the higher-up finals but are content with what he has achieved so far ahead of today’s Final E.
“It’s fantastic, we had rowers consistently at the Olympics since 2008. It’s a great thing to be here, to be with the world’s best.
“We are pleased with the performance of Steve. We were hoping that he would get into the C/D Final.
“The times that he has performed here would have seen him in the C/D Final in the Tokyo Olympics. But rowing has got bigger and better since then.
“The standards have gone up. The standards are incredibly high. But that’s what we want to see.
We want to be here rowing with the world’s best, seeing what we have to try and to become more and more competitive,” said Lorimer. The Finals D and F will also be held today. Finals C, B, and A are scheduled for tomorrow. Final A determines the medal winners.