Olympic rower Dara Alizadeh has followed up his heroics at Tokyo 2020 by getting to the semi-finals of the Diamond Sculls Challenge at the world-famous Henley Regatta in Oxfordshire, England.

The 27-year-old Bermudian sculler representing Cambridge University featured yesterday in what at the time was considered the race of the regatta when he upset highly touted Italian Simone Martini by a length after a back-and-forth tussle on the River Thames alongside Henley-on-Thames.

Hardly more than a half-length apart throughout before Alizadeh made a decisive final kick, the Italian world coastal rowing champion led at the traditional Barrier and Fawley stations.

Alizadeh’s run was brought to a juddering halt this morning when he went down “easily” to Seb Devereux, of Leander Club, the under-23 pairs world champion.

In his first heat, Alizadeh beat Matt Brigham, of Leeds University, by 2½ lengths.

The regatta caps a career-defining year for Alizadeh, whose admitted peak came at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, where he finished as the eighteenth-best single sculler out of 31.