Dara Alizadeh started Bermuda’s Olympic adventure in Paris by finishing fifth in the heats of the men’s singles sculls competition.

Competing in heat four at the Vaires-Sur-Marne Nautical Stadium, Alizadeh crossed the line fifth in the five-man heat in a time of 7min 23.70sec behind Yauheni Zalaty, who won in a time of 6:51:45.

Zalaty, from Belarus, is unable to compete under his country’s flag as a result of its support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, instead competing with the suffix of AIN, as will all athletes from Russia and Belarus.

The Belarusian, along with Jacob Plihal of the United States and Lucas Verthein Ferreira of Brazil, who finished second and third respectively, progress to the next round of competition while Alizadeh enters the repechage.

Despite finishing last in his heat, Alizadeh was relaxed about his performance.

“I knew it was a tough heat going into it,” Alizadeh said.

“But I executed my plan pretty well and I’ve got to be aware that this is a long regatta and I had to be aware of that situation about 1,000 to 1,250 metres in. About 1,250 metres in I probably saw the cost of attempting to get back into a progressing spot was just going to be too high. The risk/reward didn’t pan out.

“Once I figured out that my spot was pretty set, I shut it down and decided to get ready for tomorrow.

“What I was trying to do up to the point of going at it, I was pretty happy with it. There are a couple of things to try to improve on tomorrow, which should be good.”

Alizadeh is next in action on Sunday in Repechage 3, which takes place at about 5am Bermuda time.

In that race, in which he starts in lane 5, he faces Abdalla Ahmed, of Sudan, Vladislav Yakovlev from Kazakhstan, Hong Kong’s Hin Chun Chui and Sid Ali Boudina, of Algeria.