For most of the crews competing in the canoe sprint competition at the Rio Olympics, it is the culmination of years of training and competing together.

But for the Italian K4 1000 they had less than a month working together, and Friday in Rio was their first official race.

“We have only been paddling together for three weeks,” Alberto Ricchetti said.

“Because of this scandal of doping that happened with the other country that qualified last year in Milan, we had a quota in the second part of July, and by the time we started to work together, we had just three weeks.

“We arrived here, we competed in other races so it was kind of difficult to be ready for this race.

“Other boats have been paddling together for three or four years, and we have this lack of experience.”

Ricchetti is the sole member of the four to have any Olympic experience – he competed in the K4 in Beijing, where the Italians finished one place out of the medals.

But this time round it was a very different scenario, and once the race got under way the conditions worked against them.

“It was a good race for us, it was our first competition together as a four,” Ricchetti said.

“Unfortunately the wind changed direction at the end of the race, and as we were in lane seven, on the opposite side of the wind, we had a few waves and we couldn’t be faster in the last 350 metres.

“Until about the 700 metres we were feeling okay, but anyway, it is gone.”

All four members of the crew – Richetti, Mauro Crenna, Giulio Dressino and Nicola Ripamonti have competed in other events in Rio, which has made focussing on the K4 a challenge.

Iron-man Ricchetti has competed in two other events, but says it was still a great thrill to compete as part of the four.

“It’s already a joy to be part of the Olympic movement and part of this Olympics Games,” he said.

“When we started to work in the second part of July, we said we would come here and try and do the maximum we can.

“But then when we are starting the race, we always wanted to be in the final and to be competitive. We are athletes, we try to always be in front.

“We will see for the future.”

The men’s K4 1000 final will be raced at 10:12am Saturday, Rio time.

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