Agustín Vernice finished fourth in canoeing and takes home a diploma from the 2024 Olympic Games

The Argentine had a great performance in the K1 1000m final at Paris 2024 and tied for fourth place with Kravets, with a time of 3:28.10.

Photo: @PrensaCOA

The penultimate day of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games began with great news for Argentine canoeing, Agustín Vernice qualified for the final of the 1000-meter kayak and finished fourth in the final. He significantly improved his performance from Tokyo 2020, where he also qualified for the final, but finished eighth.

The curious thing about the race was that he ended up sharing fourth place with the Russian athlete, who is competing under a neutral flag, with a time of 3:28.10. The Argentine improved eight hundredths of a second with respect to the time of the semi-final, where he completed it with 3:28.18. The gold medal went to the Czech Josef Dostal with 3:24.66 and the podium was completed by the Hungarians Adam Varga, with 3:24.76, and Balint Kopasz, with 3:25.68.

In the semi-final, the native of Olavarría was behind the Hungarian Adam Varga, who won with a time of 3:27.92, and the two had also finished as the two fastest if the two semi-finals are added together. The first heat had been won by the also Hungarian Balint Kopasz, winner with 3:28.76, which left him with the third time among the eight classified.

Agustín Vernice and the revenge of Tokyo

The Argentine finished eighth in the final of the same event in Tokyo 2020 and now managed to improve his performance, finishing close to the podium. “I gave it my all, I had said that my goal was to be able to watch the competition with my friends and family, which was what I couldn’t do in Tokyo, I still haven’t been able to watch it, because I wasn’t happy with my performance and now I’m happy that I’m going to be able to enjoy it,” he told TyC Sports with a smile on his face.

“It was very special because I didn’t feel good at all in the final. I dominated the semi-final from start to finish, I was physically fine,” he admitted. He then revealed: “There is a reality, which has been happening to me since I was a junior, that when I have to go through a competition in an hour and a half, two hours, another one is very difficult for me, it’s a reality. So the challenge was double and from the first stroke I realized that I didn’t have the same ‘power’ as in the semi-final, but I tried to adapt and fight until the end, something I couldn’t do in Tokyo.”

Brenda Rojas, fourth in the C final

The Argentine finished fourth in the K1 500 C final with a time of 1:53.88, a time 33 hundredths faster than the 1:53.35 in the semi-final that put her in the C final of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Rojas had made it to the semi-finals on Friday after finishing second in her heat. She did so with a time of 1:52.68, +3.52 than New Zealander Aimee Fisher, holder of the world record (1:46.19), broken in May of this year.

Photo: @PrensaCOA

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