Rowing's first official Paralympic qualifiers

With eight spots available in all four boat classes, adaptive crews in the B Finals lined up to race 1000 metres for a defining moment.

The first race in the arms women’s single left Canadian fans cheering as Joan Reid come from behind to beat China’s Jinhong Zhang for the final qualifying spot behind winner Agnese Moro of Italy. Zhang and the remaining finishers of the B Final (in order of finish) Ping Cho of Hong Kong, Marie-Pierre Baskevitch-Six of France, and Fusako Inaishi of Japan still have a shot at Paralympic qualification at a Qualification Regatta here again in Munich in May 2008. Zhang also has a chance of taking one of the four spots for female athletes for the host country.

Zhang’s countrymates Yeteng Tan (AM1x) and Zilong Shan and Yangling Zhou (TA2x) solidified their tickets to Beijing by claiming victory in their respective boat classes. Tan took the lead right from the starting gates and comfortably stayed ahead of Italy’s Simone Miramonti, winning with a two second margin. Hungary’s Tibor Serenyi was third. In the trunk and arms double, Shan and Zhou also dominated from the start but second place Great Britain kept the pressure on to stay within a second of the Chinese. Canada was much further back in third by almost ten seconds.

Despite their second place finish, Brazil’s coxed four (LTAMX4+) were the most elated of all the adaptive crews of any race. Securing a spot to the Paralympic Games left the crew of Veronica Alves, Selma D’Adjuda, Elton Santana, Luciano Pires, and coxswain Rafael Ceccon De Araujo shouting in joy and throwing up their arms into the air with great excitement. The first place Russian team was a little more subdued about their
B Final win, beating the Brazilians by almost four seconds, and third place Israel by almost 18 seconds.

The remaining six qualifying spots for adaptive rowers will be determined in Saturday’s A Finals.