Cold early morning weather dampened the chances of the country’s Olympic rowing hopefuls at the World Rowing Asia-Oceania Olympic qualification regatta on Thursday, leaving Cris Nievarez as the lone survivor on the day at Sea Forest Waterway overlooking Tokyo Bay.

With the weather at 17 degrees Celsius on top of strong winds and a drizzle, according to national coach Ed Maerina, the Pinoy rowing bets had to work extra hard warming up amid chilly racing conditions.

“Di pa siya (Nievarez) naka-adjust sa lamig kaninang umaga. Ang sabi niya, di makagalaw kaagad at tumigas yong shoulder niya (Nievarez was unable to adjust to the cold weather early in the morning. His shoulder was tight.)” Maerina said.

“Medyo 40 minutes yong required na warmup sa tubig. (He needed to warm up 40 minutes in the water).”

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Still, Nievarez fared better than his teammates, recovering strong in the repechage round after finishing fourth place in the heats in 8 minutes, 21.05 seconds in the 2,000-meter race.

Acutely aware this was his last crack to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games, the 30th Southeast Asian Games men’s lightweight single sculls champion rowed like mad, sealing the lone semis spot at stake in topping the afternoon race in 8:11.40.

Nievarez finished way ahead of Thai runner-up Chanin Simbonsoon (8:39.80) and third placer Ali Boujallouf of Qatar (9:15.76).

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A native of Atimonan town, Quezon and a national team member for the last six years, the rower will see action in the semis starting at 10:30 a.m. (Manila time) Friday to decide who will reach the final, which happens less than an hour later in the day.

“There will be two semifinal races with the top 3 finishers from each one advancing to the finals,” said Maerina.

The top 5 finishers in the final will secure Olympic berths to the Tokyo Summer Games in July that will also be staged at the same venue.

Nievarez will try to succeed after after the tandems of Roque Abala Jr. and Zuriel Sumintac, and Melcah Jean Caballero and Joanie del Gaco exited the men’s and women’s doubles lightweight sculls, respectively.

With the top two squads advancing to the semis in the repechage race, Abala and Sumintac placed fourth (7:39.45) while the Del Gaco-Caballero partnership was third (8:14.30) in their division following fourth and third place finishes, respectively, in their earlier heats.

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Nievarez will try to duplicate the accomplishment of Benjie Tolentino, who was the last Filipino rower to reach the Olympics, when he saw action in the men’s singles sculls in the 2000 Sydney Games.

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