It’s been a long, hard road over many years for Argentina to qualify a women’s K4 boat to the Olympics, but in Rio it finally happened, and the quartet responsible could not be prouder.

Although the crew finished seventh in their heat and sixth in their semi-final, Magdalena Garro said just to get to the Olympics was a great thrill.

“It was hard, but it was very good for us,” Garro said.

“It’s the first time a K4 from Argentina has qualified for the Olympic Games, so we made history last year and we wanted to make more today.

“We knew it was going to be hard, we tried to prepare, we tried to do our best. It was very good but we would have liked to do more.”

The crew has a strong blend of experience and youth, with 36-year-old Sabrina Ameghino making her Olympic debut 12 years after she officially stepped away from the sport to have her first child.

20-year-old Brenda Rojas is the youngest member of the team, while Hungarian-born Alexandra Keresztesi made her Olympic debut at 33.

“We are very happy and very proud because we trained hard for three years and we qualified, but we want a bit more,”Garro said.

“It is fine, we are happy, but we are also a bit sad.

“All our people were very proud because we made history, that was good. We know for Argentina it is very hard to qualify for the Olympics, so I think for all of Argentina, we made history in these Olympic Games.”

Garro said after the thrill of their Olympic debut thoughts were already turning to Tokyo in 2020.

But she said there was not many younger paddlers coming through the system in Argentina.

“There is not too much, and that is our problem,” she said.

“We don’t have many girls who are paddling, so we have to work, and start working from today for the next Olympic Games if we want to qualify.”

The women’s K4 500 final will be raced at 9:47am Saturday morning, Rio time.