TOKYO – Williams College alumnus Tala Abujbara '14 who never rowed before arriving at Williams College from Qatar won the Final E at the Tokyo Olympic Games by open water.
Racing on the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, Abujbara took a small lead of .02 at the 500 meter mark over Kathleen Noble from Uganda and she continued to methodically expand that lead. When she reached the 1,000 meter mark she had opened up a lead of 2.14 seconds and before she reached the 1,500 meter mark she had assumed a significant open water lead and her 5:59.97 was 3.85 better than Noble.
Not letting up, Abujbara finished well in command with a time of 8:00.22, producing a 6.78 seconds margin of victory over Uganda's Noble. With the Final E win Abujbara secured a 25
th place finish overall in a field of 32 rowers in the single scull competition.
It was an Olympics Abujbara is likely to forget any time soon as she is the first woman single sculler to represent Qatar in the Olympics. While at the Olympic Games she celebrated a birthday and she was previously honored when she was selected as one of two Qatari athletes to carry the Qatari flag in the Opening Ceremonies.
