Image credit: World Rowing
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.
Entries: 8
Perle Bouge of France has raced in this category many times, as she aims for her fourth Paralympics this year. Silver in London and bronze in Rio, there has been less success in more recent times as the French double missed the A-Final at the last world championships. To help improve this outcome before a home games, she has enlisted the support of five-time winter Paralympic champion Benjamin Daviet, who brought his engine from cross-country skiing and biathlon across to rowing when he made his championship debut at the European championships, finishing fourth in Szeged, Hungary. Against top quality opposition, this is an impressive result and they will be hoping to bring that speed to Lucerne to earn a spot in Paris.
Another debutant who impressed in Szeged was Jasmina Bier of Germany who made her classic rowing debut on the international scene. She was joined by Paul Umbach who has won two world championship bronzes in the non-Paralympic PR2 singles event over the last two years before getting the call to fill the premier discipline with Bier last month. This was a very successful pairing as they won silver behind the already-qualified Great Britain team, and as such will enter the Lucerne with an expectation to progress.
The highest-ranked non-qualifiers from the 2023 world championships was the Israeli pairing of Shahar Milfelder and Saleh Shahin who won the B-Final to finish seventh in Belgrade. However, not all speed transfers easily across as they finished only sixth at the European championships, slipping behind those they had defeated in Belgrade. They will be hoping to improve their result this week and return to their 2023 form if they are going to be able to make the trip to Paris at the end of August.
The Brazilian offering is quite interesting. Gessyca Guerra made her world rowing debut in 2023, finishing an unimpressive seventh and nineth at the second World Cup and the world championships respectively. She is joined for this race by Michel Gomes Pessanha who has experience in this event from both the Rio and Tokyo Paralympics but has not raced internationally since. Their first race together was at the South American Championships where they ran out comfortable winners on home water against an underwhelming field. How they stack up against the rest of the world will be unclear until they hit the water in Lucerne, but the Brazilians will be hoping they match up well against their European competitors.
Another crew that will be crossing the Atlantic is Madison Eberhard and Russell Gernaat of the United States. Unchallenged at trials, this is the same line-up that placed tenth in an 11-boat field at the 2023 world championships. Eberhard, an age-group world champion in sled hockey, is racing on her third senior national team on the water, while Umbach has greater experience having raced at the Tokyo games as well as a high-level swimming background as well. They will need to improve on their showing at the world championships if they are to progress to Paris in the summer.
From Turkey, another interesting combination is Nursen Sen and Yigit Dogukan Bozkurt. Sen is a 44-year-old wheelchair tennis player who was ranked as high as 66th in the world as recently as 2021; she makes her World Rowing debut in Lucerne and is joined by 17-year-old Bozkurt, who has earned a number of indoor rowing medals but has yet to appear on the water at any level approaching the magnitude of a Paralympic qualifier. If this combination can click on the water they will be one to watch in Paris, but it seems that this may be too much too soon for the crew.
Making Bozkurt look even younger is the combination from Italy. 55-year-old Brianna Carafa will make her international debut in Lucerne alongside 57-year-old Daniele Stefanoni, who will be aiming to reach his third Paralympic games – and his first in 12 years. While age is less of a barrier to success in Paralympic sport, this would be a remarkable upset if they take one of the two spots for Paris especially given the quality of other entrants here.
Rounding out the field is Thailand, a nation with two entries into the Paralympic events but none for the Olympics. This crew is made up of Numtip Sinchai, whose only entry on her world rowing record is a DNS in this event at the 2019 world championships. She is joined by Phongsakon Chumchai, a powerlifter-turned-rower who has made the transition between sports. The crew has raced in Europe before, at the 2023 International Para-Rowing Regatta in Varese, where they finished dead last, so there is not too much expectation on this crew as they head for Lucerne.
Prediction
After their results at the European Championships, there are two crews in this entry who may have expectations of not just qualifying for Paris but winning medals. As a result this will likely be a fairly comfortable qualification for Germany and France, but don’t be surprised if the Brazilians, Americans or Israelis are able to get themselves involved.
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