Two Connecticut residents are headed to the finals in their respective sports this week with hopes of bringing home a medal.
Donn Cabral of Glastonbury qualified for the Olympic 3,000-meter steeplechase finals on Sunday, running an 8 minute, 21 second race and finishing fourth in the third qualifying heat Friday.
Cabral finished the 16-runner heat with a time of 8:21.46 after having led the field at the 1,000 and 2,000-meter intervals of the race. Ethiopia's Roba Gari passed Cabral in the third interval of the race, finishing in first place with a time of 8:20.68.
There were three heats of 13 racers each; the top 15 qualifying times across all three heats would qualify for Sunday's final, which is scheduled for 4:25 p.m.
Charlie Cole of New Canaan and his rowing teammates will also have a chance to win an Olympic medal after
Cole and his teammates — Scott Gault (Piedmont, Calif.), Henrik Rummel (Pittsford, N.Y.) and Glenn Ochal (Philadelphia) — are scheduled to race on Saturday at 5:30 a.m.
Cole reportedly got his start in rowing at Norwalk's Maritime Rowing Club during his freshman year at NCHS in 1999.
"Rowing in New Canaan was just starting then, so the program wasn't very developed, but I thought I would try it out," Cole said in a recent report in the CT Post. "It took a long time before I realized I could be decent."
