News & Updates

Delgaco Ends Her Olympic Journey

Joanie Delgaco bid goodbye to the Olympics podium when she failed to make it to the semi-finals A/B of the women’s single sculls, but continued her journey until the last race to obtain her 20th overall rank. 

The former Palarong Pambansa volleyball player turned Olympics rower has come a long, yet exciting journey into the Quarterfinals. She lost by a 10-second gap in the qualifiers and placed fourth, but bounced back into winning the repechage heat with a 7:55 time.

In Quarter-Final Heat 3, rowing from Lane 6, Delgaco finished 6th place. It was not an easy race for Delgaco as she faced Tokyo 2020 gold medalist Emma Twigg of New Zealand, and former Under-23 champion Katharina Jansen of Switzerland.

Delgaco started the race with a stroke rate of 37, and a 16.5km/h peak-speed rate for the first 500 meters earning 5th place. By the 1000-meter mark, she fell short and lost her place to Diana Dymchenko of Azerbaijan. 

She finished the remainder of the race with a time of 7:58.30 which got her 6th place, while winner Emma Twigg set an outstanding time of 7:26.89. Delgaco was out of the medal contention by then and was relegated to the semifinals C/D to race for placements.

In Lane 1 of Semifinals C/D 1, Delgaco started the first few hundred meters of the race in third place. Passing by the 500-meter mark, she dropped down a place with her peak speed rate being 16.5km/h.

Delgaco fell to last place before passing the 1000-meter mark as her speed also slowed down to a peak of 14.8km/h. She maintained sixth place until the 1500-meter mark but ended the race in fifth when she surpassed Fatemeh Mojallaltopraghghale of Iran. She finished the semifinals with a time of 8:00.18 while winner Jovana Arsic of Serbia set a lead of 7:44.60.

This gave Joanie Delgaco her last stop in Finals D to improve her final ranking for the women’s single sculls. She competed from Lane 2 and started the race in 4th place, maintaining this position up until the 500-meter mark. Not long after, she dropped down to 5th place up until passing by the 1000-meter mark with a time of 3 minutes and 35.17 seconds.

Delgaco did not hold back for her final stop as she impressively climbed up the leaderboard and claimed 2nd place before the last 500 meters of the race. She maintained her pace to land a 2nd-place finish with a time of 7:43.83, while winner Alejandra Alonso set a lead time of 7:42.09. This gave Delgaco a 20th overall final ranking in the women’s single sculls. 

Despite the results, Joanie Delgaco made history as the first female Filipino rower to represent the Philippines in the Olympics.