Rowing – Privel Hinkati: "My goal is to qualify Benin for the Paris 2024 Olympics"

Sport News Africa: What are your goals for the new sporting season? Privel Hinkati: My goals for the season are simple. I want to improve my time and qualify Benin for the next Olympic Games in Paris. How are you preparing? Thanks to the Olympic scholarship awarded by the IOC through the Beninese Rowing Federation and the Beninese National Olympic and Sports Committee, I can train in very good conditions in France and attend training camps abroad with the best. I train twice a day to achieve my goal. To be at Paris 2024, you first have to get through the African zone continental regatta before the final regatta. Can Benin hope to qualify? Yes, we have to hope for qualification. The favourite countries are the same as in 2019. So I have every chance. But nothing is decided until you cross the finish line. I learned that the hard way at the Rio Olympic qualifiers in 2015. What memories do you have of Tokyo 2020, your first Olympics? The best memory is, and will always be, the opening ceremony, being a joint flag-bearer as a duo.

"My life is very organised and timed to the minute"

You are a computer engineer. How do you balance sport and professional life? My life is very organised and timed to the minute. I get up very early, at 5 in the morning, to fit in training, work and training again. How did you welcome the arrival of a national rowing championship in Benin? I'm very proud of the work done by the federation to return to the African championships with young Beninese prodigies. I want to make clear that I in no way created the Beninese rowing federation. I say this because it has caused me a lot of problems. The Beninese authorities did their job very well and it is David Gbadamassi, the current president, who created the federation. I came along shortly after the early beginnings. Any plans for Benin? I hope to contribute to the development of rowing with the help of the authorities and to support the federation for as long as I can. Rachidi DOSSA