The final berths in the medal rounds of the inaugural Paralympic Games Rowing regatta will be decided on Wednesday, September 10, at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park.
Two world-best times were set in Tuesday's heats with competition for the final four berths in each of the four boat Class A-finals expected to be intense.
Women's Single Sculls - Arms
- 2007 World Championship silver Medalist, Liudmila Vauchok (Belarus) ran second in her heat on Tuesday to world-best timesetter and 2006 World Champion Helene Raynsford (Great Britain).
- It was a hard-fought heat and Vauchok will benefit from pushing Raynsford as hard as she did.
- China's Zhang Jinhong enjoyed rowing before her home crowd when she came second to Laura Schwanger (United States) on Tuesday and will be lifted by that experience in the repechage. She should advance to the A-final.
- Ukraine's Svitlana Kupriianova ran third in her heat on Tuesday after leading off the start. If she can maintain that early boatspeed through the middle section of the race, she should also book an A-final berth.
Men's Single Sculls - A
- China's Tan Yeteng fought valiantly in his heat on Tuesday, but was unable to overcome an in-form Oleksandr Petrenko (Ukrain). Tan never gave up and will benefit from that row enormously.
- Italy's Simone Miramonti is a consistent performer and should see his way through to the A-final.
- Eli Nawi (Israel) came up against world-best time-setter Tom Aggar (Great Britain) in his heat on Tuesday and had few answers to the might of his British opponent. He is an experienced rower though and remains a definite medal prospect.
- Patrick Laureau (France) and Dominic Moneypenny (Australia) were out of sorts during their heat and are much better oarsmen than they showed on Tuesday. No one will be surprised if they find a sudden form reversal during the repechages.
Mixed Double Sculls - TA
- With China and Brazil already in the A-final, Australians Kathryn Ross and John Maclean must be considered one of the crews likely to advance after Wednesday's repechages. They and Ukraine's Iryna Krychenko and Sergii Dereza should be considered medal contenders.
- Italy pushed Brazil on Tuesday and will also be a crew to watch on Wednesday.
- Great Britain's James Roberts and Karen Cromie rowed below their best in their heat and will need to find at least five seconds along the 1000m course on Wednesday to keep their medal hopes alive.
Mixed Coxed Four - LTA
- Great Britain will rue an opportunity lost on Tuesday going down to a much less-fancied Italy in their heat. Most pundits would expect them to bounce back in the repechage and put their justified gold medal aspirations back on track.
- Germany is another crew that will be hoping for a good enough repechage row to restore their pre-regatta co-favoritism (with Great Britain). They are a very experienced crew and a single below-par row is unlikely to unsettle them too much.
- The US Four came into the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games regatta will little fanfare, but proved in their heat they could be among the medals on Thursday. They'll need a good repechage row, but it is not beyond them.
- Brazil and Netherlands should not be discounted, either.
(BOCOG September 9, 2008)