adminThornycroft staged a “giant-killing” act to reach the women’s singles sculls on Day Two of the London Games on Saturday in what is a phenomenal achievement for a young girl who is making her debut appearance at the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza.
On Saturday, Thornycroft (25) showed no ghost of an inferiority complex while competing in the opening qualifying heats of the women’s singles sculls.
Thornycroft qualified for today’s quarterfinals with a time of 7:47.10 minutes.
She finished third in her heat behind top Australian female rower Kim Row who qualified for the quarterfinals with a good time of 7:41.8.
Nataliya Mustafayeva of Azerbaijan came second in 7:46.01, one place ahead of Zimbabwean debutant Thornycroft.
Thornycroft now faces an even tougher test in this afternoon’s quarterfinals of the women’s singles sculls at Eton Dorney, some 40 miles outside London.
In today’s quarterfinals, Thornycroft will race in what looks like a tough quarterfinal three against Lithuania’s Donata Vistartaite, Neegre Phuttharaksa of Thailand, China’s Xiuyun Zhang, Julia Levina of Russia and Argentine Lucia Parlemo.
Soulmaz Abbasiazad (Iran), Gabriela Benitez Mosqueira (Paraguay), Emma Twigg (New Zealand), Kim
Crow (Australia), MarieLouise Draeger (Germany) and Debora Oakley Gonzalez (Mexico) are in the first quarterfinal of the women’s singles sculls.
Racing in the second quarterfinal are Camila Palomo Vargas of Spain, Ireland’s Sanita Puspure,
Swede Frida Svensson, Miroslava Knapkova of the Czech Republic, American Genevra Stone and Cuba’s Yariulvis Cobas.
Ekaterina Karsten of Belarus will be one of six other rowers who will be racing in quarterfinal four.
The first three rowers in each quarterfinal will pull through to the semifinals’ groups A/B while the remainder will be relegated to the semifinals of groups C/D.
The best crews from the semifinals groups A/B will then qualify to the finals group A, which will determine medals and places four to six.
Unsuccessful crews from the semifinals A/B will compete in the finals group B to determine places seven to 12.
And Zimbabwe’s Thornycroft must be fancying her chances of reaching the main semifinals groups A/B after her heroics in the opening qualifying heats at Eton Dorney on Saturday.
She goes into today’s quarterfinals as a massive underdog but she definitely has got nothing to lose as she takes on some of the world’s established female rowers in her quarterfinal race today.
In fact, there are four quarterfinals for the women’s singles sculls.
The favourites to go through to the semifinals are Australia’s Crow, Twigg (New Zealand), Knapkova (Czech Republic), Xiuyun Zhang (China) and Karsten (Belarus).
But a dark horse will come from Zimbabwe’s Thornycroft who is also aiming for a place in the top 12.
Online Reporter