The Philippines has found its eighth 2020 Tokyo Olympian in 20-year-old Filipino rower Cris Nievarez.
The long-time national team member qualified for the Men’s Single Sculls Event of the Tokyo Games scheduled from July 23 to August 8 this year.
Nievarez, alongside other national team members, joined the Asia and Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Tokyo, Japan last week, finishing 9th in the 12-man event.
The Antimonan, Quezon-native, initially failed to crack the Top 5 that will take him to the Tokyo Games, but with the Olympic rule stating that each country could only join two out of four rowing events in the Olympics, other countries chose to forego the Men’s Single Scull Event, paving the way for Nievarez’s Olympic entry.
Nievarez now joins top pole vaulter Ernest John Obiena, gymnast Carlos Yulo, weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and boxers Eumir Felix Marcial, Nesthy Petecio, Irish Magno and Carlo Paalam as the country’s representatives for the upcoming Games.
Report by Ashely Bercasio/ JBB-rir
