2024 Olympic Games | Rowing | Courtney Westley clinched her place in the Women’s Single Sculls for Paris

Courtney Westley clinched her place in the Women’s Single Sculls for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a second-place finish at the African Rowing Champs on Wednesday.

Accompanied by U23 Head Coach Thato Mokoena, Westley clocked 8:03.71, just five seconds short of winner Algerian Nihed Benchadli’s time.

It’s been a busy year for Westley, who placed sixth at the U23 World Championships earlier this year in the women’s single scull in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Days later, she was on her way to China to race in the World Student Games with the USSA Team, where she placed second in the women’s single scull.

This is the first time RowSA have sent athletes to qualify through the African continental qualification since the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

The approach is essential to rowing’s universality and to the growth of RowSA athletes—particularly female rowers, who are currently leaving in great numbers to pursue their university careers as rowers in the United States’ many colleges.

Para Men’s sculler Lifa Hlongwa also competed in Tunisia, but narrowly missed out on qualification after placing second in the PR1 Men’s Single Scull.

RowSA have qualified two boats for the Paris games thus far and will look to qualify more rowing boats in May 2024 at the Final Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland.