Racing for ranks 7 to 12 at the 2012 Paralympic Rowing Regatta

AS Women’s Single Sculls (ASW1x) – B-Final

Korea’s Jongrye Lee was the fastest B-final qualifier after posting a very good time in yesterday’s repechage. Lee finished fourth in this event at last year’s World Rowing Championships and her expectations must have been higher than a B-final race. But Lee made the best of it and had an absolute flyer out of the start. With just 250m rowed Lee had already outclassed her competition and gained an open-water lead. This left Sandra Khumalo of South Africa and Martyna Snopek of Poland to fight it out for second.

With the tight battle continuing between Khumalo and Snopek, 2008 Paralympian Lee remained in an untouchable position out in front. Then coming through the 600m mark Khumalo did a piece that enabled her to break away from Snopek. But Lee was still way out of reach. Lee crossed the line a huge 21 seconds ahead of Khumalo in second. This is a good result for Khumalo who entered her first international event in rowing earlier this year.

Results: KOR, RSA, POL, POR, JPN, HUN

AS Men’s Single Sculls (ASM1x) – B-Final

After close finishing times in the repechages yesterday, this was likely to be a battle between New Zealand’s Danny McBride and Juan Barcia Alonso of Spain. Barcia Alonso got away the quickest settling into a 32 stroke rate pace. Margins, however, remained very tight through the entire field. This was going to be a close fight. Then Germany and Argentina began to slip off the pace with the leading four boats nearly forming a line of just two seconds separation.

Barcia Alonso did a push around the 600m mark and managed to gain a bit of an edge over his opposition with McBride making the best effort to move with the Spaniard. Coming into the final sprint disaster struck for Barcia Alonso. In the last 50m of the race Barcia Alonso’s strapping around his torso came undone. In his attempt to amend the issue McBride and Ronald Harvey of the United States managed to row through Spain. Full credit to Barcia Alonso who still managed to hold on to third despite the mishap and finish ninth overall at these Paralympic Games.

Results: NZL, USA, ESP, UKR, GER, ARG

TA Mixed Double Sculls (TAMix2x) – B-Final

As the rain began to fall the B-final of the TA mixed double sculls got under way with Ukraine’s Dmytro Ivanov and Iryna Kyrychenko taking a very slight lead at the start. The duo are two-time World Champions with a fourth-place finish at the World Rowing Championships last year. Today they maintained the lead through the middle of the race but Israel, Brazil and Poland were right with them. The margins were so close that Josiane Lima and Isaac Ribeiro of Brazil managed to take the lead through the third quarter of the race.

The intensity remained hot amongst the leading boats as Ivanov and Kyrychenko pushed hard to regain the lead. In a furious sprint to the line Ivanov and Kyrychenko managed to inch ahead of Lima (a 2008 Paralympic medallist) and Ribeiro. Ukraine had claimed seventh overall at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

Results: UKR, BRA, ISR, POL, BLR, RUS

LTA Mixed Coxed Four (LTAMix4+) – B-Final

Despite being second at the World Rowing Championships last year and World Champions in 2010, Canada has not had the best season in 2012 and today they raced in the B-final. The Canadians had secured a middle lane alongside France, who finished fourth at the World Rowing Championships in 2011. This B-final was likely to be a race between these two countries. As expected Canada and France moved away from the rest of the field very early on with the French having a very slight edge.

The head-to-head battle continued through the middle of the race as Canada and France both fought it out to finish first. Canada has retained all of the rowers that finished second last year and three of the rowers that raced at the Paralympic Games in 2008. France had retained three of the rowers from their 2011 crew.

A solid piece by Canada in the third quarter of the race earned them a slight lead, but France continued to hold on tightly. In the sprint to the line Canada proved to be the better crew.

Results: CAN, FRA, BRA, IRL, RUS, BLR