Huge upsets in adaptive rowing’s first round

Raced over 1000m these event are part of the adaptive rowing Paralympic Games qualification criteria. Adaptive rowing will debut at next year’s Paralympic Games in Beijing.

In the biggest adaptive field ever to enter the World Championship arena, 62 entries showed a rise of 50 per cent from last year.

Opening the racing the arms women’s single (AW1x), saw two heats with the first only advancing directly to the final. This produced the first upset of the day with reigning World Champion Helene Raynsford of Great Britain well off the pace and back in fourth. Instead it is newcomer Liudmila Bauchok of Belarus who goes directly to the final with the fastest qualifying time. Claudia Santos of Brazil won the second heat in a much tighter race leaving the favoured Martyna Snopek of Poland back in third.

Three heats of the arms men’s single (AM1x) opened with Tom Aggar of Great Britain leading for the entire 1000m course. Aggar used a 45 stroke rate to stay ahead but was under no threat from Canada’s Pierre Morel in second. These top two boats go to the semifinal.

Easily the fastest qualifying time went to Eli Nawi of Israel who finished heat two with a time of 5:23. Nawi caused a huge upset to the status quo by beating two-time World Champion Dominic Monypenny of Australia, breaking Monypenny’s two year winning spree. Italy’s Simone Miramonti also staged a huge challenge recovering from a crab to get within two seconds of Monypenny. But it will be Nawi and Monypenny that advance to the semifinal.

Ron Harvey of the United States dominated heat three in a race that turned into a procession with Patrick Laureau of France slotting into second and qualifying 10 seconds down on Harvey. This is Harvey’s fourth year of international competition and last year he took silver at the World Championships.

The trunk and arms double sculls (TA2x) had three heats with the top two in each heat advancing to the semifinal. Heat one saw Italy’s Stefania Toscano and Daniele Stefanoni break the winning streak of reigning World Champions Angela Madsen and Scott Brown and break it by a lot. Toscano and Stefanoni finished over 12 seconds ahead of Brown and Madsen for the 1000m distance. Both boats will advance to the semifinal.

China debuted in style with the duo of Zilong Shan and Zangjing Zhou winning the second heat despite being pushed by Greece who came through Canada to take the second qualifying spot. It was Lucas Pagani and Josiane Lima of Brazil who recorded the fastest qualifying time in heat three. Pagani and Lima took off ahead of Australia’s John MacLean and Kathryn Ross. MacLean and Ross fought back pusing Pagani and Lima for the full 1000m. Both boats qualify for the semifinal with just two seconds separating them at the end.

LIMA Josiane (BRA): "It was a good and enjoyable race."

CROMIE Karen (GBR): "It is very hard to cope with the temperature. But it's good to see people from other countries with whom we know each other from former competitions. Good to see my friends."

MACLEAN John (AUS): "This is our first race ever, we are happy to come second. It is a good result to advance into the semi-final. So we are happy."

MADSEN Angela (USA): "It is great. We watched some races, we saw some new teams. About our race, we stayed in the second place and it's okay."

The legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four (LTAMx4+) also had three heats with the top three in each heat advancing to the semifinal. Heat one saw the reigning World Champions Great Britain under fire from a fired up German crew. The two crews went head to head for the entire race, Germany winning by a nose. But the German boat was then weighed and found to be underweight. Under FISA rules Germany gets relegated to last and will have to race the repechage. Great Britain, Russia and Ukraine move on to the semifinal.

Heat two was much more sedate with Italy taking the lead, the Netherlands slotting into second and Brazil way back in third. The order did not change and all three boats advance to the semifinal. In heat three the United States came out firing on all cylinders but found themselves up against the strong Canadians. Canada pushed back and a powerful second half push gave them the lead. Canada, the United States and Israel advance to the semifinal.

Adaptive racing continues on Tuesday with the repechages.