Kayaker Stephenie Chen has secured a quota spot for Singapore at the Paris Olympics.

It has taken the 32-year-old three years to do so.

She did it on April 20, while competing in the April 18-21 Asian canoe sprint Olympic qualifiers in Tokyo.

Chen finished third in the women’s K1 500m race with a time of 2 minutes 6.129 seconds.

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China’s Zhang Luxi and Uzbekistan’s Ekaterina Shubina finished first and second in 2:02.328 and 2:04.043 respectively.

The Singaporean's qualification will end a 12-year absence at the Olympics for Singapore's kayakers.

Fighting for two quota spots

Kayakers were fighting for two Olympic quota places.

There was only spot in the last qualifiers.

In 2021, Chen missed out on a spot at the Tokyo Games by fractions of a second on two occasions during a qualifier.

During the 2021 Asian Olympic qualifiers in Pattaya, she finished second and 0.938 of a second behind Kazakhstan’s Natalya Sergeyeva in the K1 500m.

A day later in the K1 200m, she came in third in 40.325sec, a mere 0.067sec later and failed to reach the Tokyo Olympics.

Kazakhstan’s Inna Klinova clocked 40.123sec to finish second, and Japan’s Yuka Ono was third and made it in 40.258sec.

Ono made it for the Tokyo Games as Kazakhstan had already qualified.

Chen has continued to improve since then by winning a silver in the K1 500m at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023.

The Paris Olympics is three months away and will take place from July 26 to Aug 11.

Geraldine Lee was the first to compete in the sport (K1 500m) in London 2012.

The Singapore Canoe Federation will reveal the selection criteria for the quota place at a later date.

Top photos via Instagram