Rowing will make its Paralympic Games debut on Tuesday at the Shunyi 0lympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.
The Paralympic Games' most recently-introduced sport features three days of 1000m racing in Women's Single Sculls - Arms (AW1x), Men's Single Sculls - Arms (AM1x), Mixed Double Sculls - Trunk and Arms (TA2x) and Mixed Coxed Four - Legs, Trunk and Arms (LTAMx4+).
The first event of the regatta comprises two heats of the Women's Single Sculls, featuring several outstanding oarswomen with solid chances of securing the gold medal.
World champion Claudia Santos (Brazil) is considered the pre-regatta favorite.
She impressively took the world crown at Oberschleissheim, Germany, in her first year of international competition and has worked tirelessly to refine her style and race tactics since that groundbreaking 2007 victory.
Santos will find her most formidable opposition in an in-form Svitlana Kupriianova (Ukraine).
Kupriianova finished fourth at the 2007 World Championships but has trained solidly and shown dramatic improvement since that time.
She secured her berth at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games with an emphatic 30-second win over world championship Silver medalist Luidmila Vauchok (Belarus) at the June 2008 World Cup regatta at Poznan, Poland.
Great Britain's 2006 world champion Helene Raynsford did not compete at the 2008 World Cup but has the experience to challenge for a place on the victory dais while 2006 and 2007 World Championship bronze medalist Martyna Snopek (Poland) will also be in the medal hunt.
Three-time Paralympic Games Track and Field athlete Laura Schwanger (United States) celebrated her recent conversion to Rowing by taking the gold medal in this event at the 2007 USA National Paralympic Games.
Schwanger, Portugal's Filomena Franco and China's Zhang Jinhong are determined campaigners and will certainly be oarswomen to watch.
Reigning world champion Tom Aggar (Great Britain) is the oarsman to beat in the Men's Single Sculls.
The former Rugby player's 2007 World Championship win -- won in a world-best time of 5:13:13 -- also came in his first year of international Rowing. He followed up that historic victory in June this year with a commanding win over Israel's Eli Nawa at the 2008 World Cup regatta.
Australia's 2006 world champion Dominic Moneypenny is considered a very strong medal chance while world championship silver and bronze medalist Ron Harvey (United States), Oleksandr Petrenko (Ukraine), Steve Daniel (Canada) and Patrick Laureau (France) cannot be discounted.
The Mixed Double Sculls presents itself as one of the most open contests of the regatta with world champions Brazil and 2008 World cup winners Poland possibly having a slight edge over the field.
The new Brazilian combination of Josiane Lima and Elton Santana and the consistent Piotr Majka and Jolanta Pawlak (Poland) have considerable international experience. Both crews are full of confidence and will relish the opportunity to line up against each other at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games regatta.
Their main opposition is expected to come from world championship silver medalists Kathryn Ross and John Maclean (Australia), World Cup silver medalists Karen Crombie and James Roberts (Great Britain) and World Cup bronze medalists Iryna Kyrychenko and Sergii Dereza (Ukraine).
The United States crew boast six-time world championship medalist Angela Madsen who will row with Scott Brown for the first time at a major international competition. They must also be considered a strong medal chance while the German and Israeli combinations are expected to perform well.
World champions Germany and world championship silver medalists Great Britain are tipped to contest the gold medal in the Mixed Coxed Four.
The crews saw some intriguing battles of late, most recently Great Britain's win over Germany -- a reversal of the 2007 World Championships result -- at the 2008 World Cup regatta.
Both consistently rate in the 32-34 strokes-per-minute range, less than a second separated them at the World Championships and their form coming into the 2008 Paralympic regatta suggests they may have a slight edge over Canada and Netherlands.
Russia, Denmark and Israel staked their claims for a medal in this boat class with A-final appearances at the 2008 World Cup while Italy, the United States and Canada should also be in medal contention.
Racing on Tuesday commences at 3:00 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8) with the first heat of the Women's Single Sculls and concludes with Heat 2 of the Mixed Coxed Four at 5:20 p.m.
(BOCOG September 7, 2008)