The Argentine Olympian Agustín Vernice qualified for the final A of the Canoeing World Cup

The Buenos Aires canoeist Agustín Vernice, eighth in the Tokyo Olympics and top figure of the Argentine senior speed team, qualified this Thursday to the final A (from first to ninth place) in the K1 1000 meter test of the Duisburg World Cup, Germany , which will provide six places at the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, by finishing second in one of the semifinals.

Vernice, 28, a representative of the Estudiantes de Olavarría club and who reached the semifinals by winning their qualifying regatta last Wednesday, was second on Thursday, with a time of 3m26s730/100, in the regatta won by the Hungarian Adam Varga ( who won the silver medal at the 2021 Olympic Games) with 3m25s348/100.

"I am very happy with my performance today (for Thursday). I was able to replicate everything I worked on. Now focused on doing the same or better in the final on Saturday," Vernice said in a statement to Télam from Germany.

Vernice will compete next Saturday in the A final with the Spanish Francisco Cubelos, the Belgian Artuur Peters, the German Jakob Thordsen, the Portuguese Fernando Pimenta -2021 world champion and bronze at the Tokyo Olympics-, the Hungarian Adam Varga, the Australian Thomas Green (seventh in Japan 2021), the Swede Martin Nathell and the Czech Josef Dostal (fifth in the 2021 Olympic Games and 2019 world runner-up) and will qualify for the Paris Olympics if they finish in the top seven.

"Agustín arrived in great shape at the toughest world championship of the cycle for being an Olympic qualifier. In the final he can do a great regatta to be among the qualifiers. There is only place for the six best in the world, which is only for a few, but Agustín made it he can go looking for it," said the technical director of the Argentine speed canoeing team, Diego Cánepa, in dialogue with Télam from Germany.

In this way, the native of Olavarría, will play his fourth final A in K1 1000 meters in senior World Championships after those in Halifax, Canada (2002); in which he finished seventh; .Szeged, Hungary, 2019 (9th) and Racice, Czech Republic 2017 (7th).

For his part, the president of the Argentine Canoeing Federation (FAC), Hugo Cabral, in statements to Télam, stated: "Agustín had the strongest semifinal. He ran with who, surely, is the candidate to win the World Cup , which forced him to set a formidable time. It's one more step. Agustín is among the elite in the world. I hope he confirms it in the final on Saturday".

Last May, Vernice took sixth place at the World Cup in Poznan, Poland, in the K1 1000 meters with a time of 3m47s04/100, and also. He achieved fourth place in the K1 500 meters with a time of 1m42s78/100 and was placed after the Danish Rene Holten Poulsen (1m42s/75; the Portuguese Pimenta (1m41/87) and the Czech Dostal, who won with 1m41s55/100.