Shelley Pearson missed out on qualifying for the singles sculls A/B semi-final after placing fourth in her quarter-final heat at the Olympic Games today.

She needed a top-three finish to achieve her goal of a berth in the B final, finishing four tenths of a second behind third-placed Carling Leema of Canada.

Pearson will now have to settle for a place in tomorrow’s C/D semi-final at Lagoa Rodrigo de Freita.

The 25-year-old finished the 2,000 metres race in a time of 7min 34.90sec.

Fie Udby Erichsen of Denmark, a silver-medal winner at the London Olympics in 2012, won the race in 7:33.24. Micheen Thorncroft of Zimbabwe came second in 7:34.38.

“Those were athletes I have a lot of respect for and I was super excited to be as close to them as I was,” Pearson said.

“I’m bummed I didn’t get through and it wasn’t quite enough but it was one hell of a race.

“The conditions were a much better than Saturday [in the heats]. It was still quite choppy but everyone handled them quite well.”