The Debrief: Mixed Fortunes on the Rotsee

It was a day of mixed emotions in Lucerne, Switzerland yesterday as the finals of the “Last Chance Regatta” took place with dreams coming true or being shattered in the bid to qualify for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, France, later this summer.

Overall, 18 NOCs secured additional Olympic spots with the USA securing four, Denmark and Italy three, while France, Greece and Switzerland added two to their overall Paris 2024 qualifying spots. In the Paralympic boat classes, France booked two additional crews for their Home Games, while Ukraine, Italy, Brazil and Israel secured one. Pending a protest, the spot in the PR1 women’s single sculls is yet to be decided.

Para success for France

In the PR1 men’s single sculls, France’s Alexis Sanchez successfully qualified for his first ever Paralympic Games, and one on home soil as he claimed the single qualifying slot at the Final Qualification Regatta. In the process, he prevented Brazil’s Rene Campos Pereira from qualifying for a third Paralympic Games.

Shortly later, there was even more success for the Para rowers from the host country of this year’s Paralympic Games when Benjamin Daviet and Perle Bouge crossed the line first in the PR2 mixed double sculls. While it will be the fourth Paralympic Regatta for Bouge, the qualification was particularly impressive for newcomer Daviet who made his international debut just a few weeks ago at the European Rowing Championships, having previously completed in three Paralympic Winter Games where he has collected five gold, four silver and a bronze medal in biathlon and cross-country skiing, along with multiple world championship and world cup medals. Israel’s Shahar Mildelder and Saleh Shahin took the second qualification spot in this boat class.

That makes it a perfect 5/5 for the home nation at the Paralympic Games – France will be the only nation that will have a boat competing in all five Paralympic boat classes in Paris. Will that transition into five medals?

Heart break for Puspure

After a couple of seasons racing in bigger boats, Sanita Puspure was back in the single sculls hoping to qualify to race that boat for a fourth Olympic Games. Puspure had looked strong throughout the early stages of the competition and hopes were high.

While she led the final for the first three quarters, in the final 500m, she appeared to just run out of steam which allowed Virginia Diaz Rivas of Spain and Aurelia-Maxima Janzen of Switzerland to scull through into the top two places and secure Olympic qualification. The third qualification place, from the host country place reallocation, is still to be announced, and will go to the highest placed NOC that has not yet qualified any boats for the Olympic Games.

No qualification, but happiness for Borch

Having looked promising throughout the regatta, it wasn’t to be a fourth Olympics for Norway’s Kjetil Borch in the men’s single sculls. Mihai Chiruta took the win, securing Romania’s twelfth qualification in the Olympic boat classes whilst Jacob Plihal took second place to confirm the slot for the USA.

While Borch will have been devastated to miss out, things looked up when he came off the water as he went down on one knee to propose to former French rower Alice Mayne. She said yes! Alice said “It was absolutely a surprise. Even if it is something we had talked about, it is was not on the plan right now. Especially when he is racing, he is very focussed.”  “I just don’t understand how that could have been in his mind before or after the racing. It was a big surprise!”

Reigning Olympic Champions miss out

It was arguably a surprise to see the reigning Olympic Champions and silver medallists Italy and France having to attempt to qualify here for the lightweight women’s double sculls, but here they were, and they unfortunately ended up in the same heat too. France got the better of Italy in the heat which meant Italy had to come through the repechage. In the final, while Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola qualified for a home Games, the reigning Olympic Champions Valentini Rodini and Federica Cesarini missed out.

The second qualifying place went to Dimitra Eleni Kontou and  Zoe Fitsou of Greece. This was particularly impressive for World Rowing’s Rower of the Month from January this year, Kontou, who is aged just 18.

History makers in the big boats

 With four crews racing for two places in the women’s eight, the two crews that secured the qualifying places both made history. Italy led from the start and crossed the line comfortably ahead while Denmark overhauled China in the closing stages to take the all-important second place by just 0.19 seconds. For both Italy and Denmark, it will be the first time ever that their nation will be represented in the women’s eight at an Olympic Games – an even more impressive performance from Denmark, who qualified all women’s sweep boats yesterday!

Matching the performance of their women, in the last race of the day, Italy also secured qualification in the men’s eight – the result announced after analysing a photo finish. Italy had got the better of Canada by 0.01 seconds to qualify with the USA having taken the first qualification spot.

And also…

– Nikolay Pimenov qualified yesterday for his first Olympic Games when he qualified the double sculls for Serbia. That puts a Nikolay Pimenov back at the Olympics for the first time in 32 years, after Nikolay’s legendary father, rowing for Russia and sharing the same name, finished 15^th at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games in the men’s pair.

– Tonu Endrekson qualified yesterday for his sixth Olympic Games when the Estonian men’s quad crossed the line in second position behind Norway. Endrekson still trails another quite famous Norwegian, Olaf Tufte, who competed in seven Olympic Games, but at 45 years old, the Endrekson showed how good he still was, beating people that weren’t even 10 years old when he won his silver medal at the Beijing Olympics…

– There was more history made yesterday, when Mihai Chiruta crossed the line in first – qualifying for the first-time ever a men’s single for Romania at the Olympics. The Stankunas twins achieved something that hadn’t been done since 1996 for their country – qualifying a men’s pair at the Games. Finally, the USA will once again have a women’s quadruple sculls at the Olympics  -something they have achieved at every Olympic Games, minus the boycotted Moscow Games in 1980).