Delgaco in race of her life

PARIS – Rower Joanie Delgaco returns to the posh Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium Tuesday afternoon for the biggest race of her life -- in the Olympics here.

Drawn with no less than the reigning champ and tough bets from Europe on Heat 3 of the quarterfinals, Delgaco faces tall odds in the race for the top three, who will advance to the semifinals A and B (medal contention).

But there’s no turning back for the 26-year-old Iriga native, one of only four Asians who made the top 24 of the women’s single sculls in the Paris Games.

She has achieved the goal to be among the top five Asians here, and she now wants to raise the bar of cracking the top 20 overall.

Delgaco will automatically be in the top 12 if she makes the semifinals A and B.

But with mere clocking of 7:55.00 in the repechage and 7:56.26 in the heats, Delgaco would definitely need miles of waters to navigate if she’s ever to catch up on the world powers.

In her quarterfinals heat alone, there are Tokyo gold medalist Emma Twigg from New Zealand, former under-23 world champion Katharina Jansen of Switzerland, Virginia Diaz of Spain, Diana Dymchenko of Azerbaijan and Jovana Arsic of Serbia.

Twigg, also a former world champion, four-time silver winner and three-bronze holder, had a remarkable 7:13.97 clocking in taking top podium finish in Tokyo.

And the rest clocked better than Delgaco in the previous races here.

The call by the Filipino officials on Delgaco is just to stay focused and give her best.

The other Asians vying in the quarterfinals are Iranian Fatemeh Mojallaltopraghghale, Vietnamese Thi Hue Pham and Uzbek Anna Prakaten.