Kathleen Noble makes history as the 1st rower for Uganda at the Tokyo Olympics where she posted 8:21.85 for 5th in Heat 2 of the women’s single sculls.
The heat was won by 2-time world champion Sanita Puspure of Ireland at Sea Forest Waterway. Noble now heads to the repechage on Saturday (2:30am EAT).
The result means Noble has missed the automatic qualification to the quarter-finals. According to the format, the first three directly qualify for the quarter-finals.
Noble, 26, was born in Kiwoko Hospital Nakaseke in 1994 Uganda to a pair of missionaries from Ireland. She lived there through high school and actually became an accomplished swimmer who represented Uganda in the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships.
The Repechage round offers rowers a second chance to qualify for the quarterfinals with rowers who had good times in each heat parade to compete for their last chances.
She will lineup in Repechage heat three on Saturday to battle for a quarter-final slot against four other rowers who also missed quarter-final slots in their respective heats, she is placed in lane one against Ayivon Claire, Khogali Esraa, Venega Cancio Milena and Hung Wing Yan Winne.
Her relationship with the sport was love-hate, though, and when she moved to the United States to attend Princeton University, she left swimming behind.
