With the start of the Paris Paralympics just a couple of months away, the time has come for the Final Paralympic Qualifying Regatta, aka “The Regatta of Death”. This is the last chance for only seven boats to book their place at the Paralympic party. Held on the glorious waters of the Rotsee in Lucerne – the aptly-named Lake of the Gods – it is, perhaps, the hardest and most brutal set of races throughout the entire Paralympic cycle. The maths is very straightforward (unlike the Continental Qualifiers which are anything but); only the top finisher will book their ticket to Paris in the PR1 single sculls and the PR3 mixed double sculls. In the PR2 mixed double sculls and the PR3 mixed coxed four, the top two will go on to compete at the Paralympics.
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Cast your minds back to Belgrade. France’s Alexis Sanchez was unknown and burst onto the scene. Third in his heat was followed by a win in his repechage, setting up an incredibly competitive semi-final against Italy, Ukraine and Israel. Sanchez was beaten into fourth place and ended up ninth overall, just outside of the qualifying position. Since then, he’s kicked off his 2024 season in fine fashion, placing fourth at the European Championships and overhauling Shmuel Daniel, who relegated Sanchez to the B-Final back in Belgrade. With this sort of momentum Sanchez will be tough to beat in Lucerne.
Sanchez’s toughest opposition will come from the Americas in the form of Brazil’s Rene Campos Pereira.
The Brazilian was just eight seconds behind Sanchez in Belgrade and is a veteran of the sport, having raced at both the Rio and Tokyo Paralympics where he reached the A-Final in 2016 and won a bronze medal in an incredibly tight race back in 2021. There’s work to be done for the old guard to usurp the young pretender but the narrative around this head-to-head is a fascinating one as the Frenchman looks to race at his first Paralympics on home soil and the Brazilian aims for his third Games at the age of 43.
Sticking with the Americas we arrive at Mexico’s Michel Munoz Malagon. This is where things start to get complicated. Despite winning the America’s Paralympic Qualification Regatta back in March, the Mexican will have to make the trip to Europe because of the complicated qualification rules. Mexico also won the PR3 Mixed double scull at the qualification regatta and their National Paralympic Committee had to choose who went straight to Paris. Spoiler, it was the double. Malagon was around 30 seconds off the pace of Pereira at the world championships but will be looking to return to the Paralympics after competing at the Tokyo Games.
Across the entry field is a crop of athletes from across the C and D-Final at the world championships in 2023. Kazakhstan’s Temirkhan Daiyrbek was the best of this bunch, winning the C-Final in a time that would still have put him some margin back on the Brazilian. Just two seconds back on him was Andrew Mangan from the United States of America and back in the D Final was Czechia’s Tomas Nevecny.
Predication
Like the women’s event, this will come down to two athletes fighting for one ticket to Paris. Both narratives are compelling, however the young gun from France is my pick to race on home water in a couple of months’ time.
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