Rower

Rower Rillio Rii to begin Vanuatu’s Olympic campaign

Rii will be racing against five other crews on the Rowing Men's Single Sculls, Heat 2 at the Sea Forest Waterway, Tokyo on Saturday.

The other competing rowing crews are from New Zealand, Greece, Dominican Republic, Monaca and Peru.

"Lane 4 it is, for Mr Rii".

This will be a tough first rowing race for Rii at the Olympic

He is the first Vanuatu athlete to bring home ‘a Gold’- remaining the Commonwealth Men’s Single Scull Beach Rowing Sprint Champion in a Commonwealth Federation Event, 2018.

Vanuatu rower qualifies for Rio Olympics

RNZI reports the 24 year old only starting competing five years ago and has represented Vanuatu at three senior World Championships.

He missed out on automatic qualification, having finished 13th out of 20 at last months Asia/Oceania Championships in Korea (the top seven qualified directly), but was awarded a place in Brazil by the International Olympic Committee.