Last Updated: 06.Dec.2018

Last week, four of our Green Racing Project rowers headed down to Rio de Janeiro to race in the Pre-Pan American Games Qualifying Regatta with the hopes of qualifying to race at the Pan American Games next July in Lima, Peru. The squad consisted of Head GRP Coach Stephen Whelpley, Jenifer Forbes in the Women’s 1x, Lucas Bellows in the Men’s 1x, and Wes Vear and Nathan Lado in the Men’s 2x. Lucas and Wes also raced in a composite 4x with the Men’s Lightweight 2x athletes from Delaware University. Our four Greenies donned USA unis to race against competitors from countries all across the Americas. In order to qualify for the Pan Am Games, the M1x and W1x both needed to finish among the top 10, the M2x had to finish 11th or better, and the M4x needed to finish fifth.

Racing went great with fantastic conditions for almost the entire week. Forbes comfortably won her heat as well as her semifinal, cruising through to the A final. She commanded her final from start to finish, winning by almost a three second margin over second. Bellows placed second in his heat and then fourth in his semifinal, sending him to the B final where he proceeded to finished with innumerable lengths of open water over the rest of the field. Lado and Vear won their heat and then placed third in their semifinal, sending them to the A final where they finished 6th in tricky side chop conditions. The M4x unfortunately ended up placing 6th in their final. However, all of our other GRP boats qualified for Peru next summer!

Congratulations to all our competitors and a huge congratulations to Jen Forbes for bringing home the gold!

Full race results can be found here.

Check out our daily coverage 1, 2, and 3.