Final Paralympians decided

The Final Qualification Regatta for the rowing events at the 2008 Paralympic Games finished this morning and 12 crews qualified for the Games. Eight crews qualified by finishing in first or second positions in this morning's finals. In addition, FISA and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) allocated the four remaining spots, through the bipartite process, to the South African four, the Spanish men's single sculler, the Hong Kong female single sculler and the Japanese double sculls.

The bipartite allocation is based on IPC criteria of gender equality and disability equality. As Adaptive Rowing is gender equal and allows for all disabilities, in agreement with the IPC, FISA has added universality and a maximum spread of participation as criteria and made its decision based on this morning's race results. In total, 22 countries will participate in the first-ever Paralympic Rowing Regatta in September with a breakdown of participating nations: 4 Asian, 1 African, 3 from the Americas, 13 European and 1 Oceania.

These newly qualified athletes join the 64 rowers already qualified after the 2007 World Rowing Championships on this same course in Munich.

Following the morning qualifications, a FISA press conference was held to explain the Paralympic qualification system.

In addition, Matt Smith, FISA Executive Director gave a short update on the current status of Olympic qualification. Already 98 nations have participated in the Olympic qualification process. This includes Munich last year and the continental qualification events in Latin America, Asia and Asia. FISA's goal for this Olympic quadrennial period was to reach 100 member federations, and, according to Smith, this goal will be achieved in Poznan, Poland, as at least two additional nations shall attempt qualification through the final qualification regatta from 15 to 18 June 2008.

Olympic tripartite allocation has already been decided, and places have been given to the Men's single scull from Monaco and Honduras and Iraq for the final two places in the lightweight men's double scull or the open men's double scull – still to be determined.

Among other issues discussed were a new official sponsorship deal between FISA and Siemens. Siemens is already a partner of British rowing, and have joined FISA to support this year's Rowing World Cup series.

Siemens is a leading global engineering company, providing innovative solutions to help tackle the world's major challenges, across the key industrial sectors of energy, industry and healthcare. It is also a key provider of IT services and solutions and financial services.

The first stage of Rowing World Cup on the Olympic Regatta Course in Munich, Germany will finish tomorrow, Sunday. The series continues in Lucerne, Switzerland from 30 May to 1 June and the final in Poznan, Poland from 20 to 22 June.