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: 6
With two qualifying slots available, Italy should be fairly confident of heading to Lucerne and taking care of business. ‘A’ Finalists at the 2022 world championships, The Italians had a dip in form at just the wrong moment, losing out to Australia and China during the repechage in Belgrade which was brutal timing as all six ‘A’ finalists qualified their boats for Paris.
The Italian quartet would go on to win the B-Final, comfortably ahead of South Korea, Spain and Mexico, all of whom are going to be racing at the regatta of death. That B-Final saw Korea 24 seconds behind Italy, Spain 17 seconds back on the Koreans and Mexico a further 30 seconds further back.
Based on results from the European championships earlier this year, Spain are still struggling to close the gap on the Italians, suggesting the Koreans and somewhere in between those two crews in terms of speed ranking.
Brazil have pulled together a fascinating quintet of rowers and a cox. They’re steered by Jucelino Da Silva who first coxed internationally at the 2000 Nations Cup in Denmark. Da Silva most recently involved at the Tokyo Paralympics as part of a Brazilian Four that placed fourth in the B Final. While Alina Dumas is fresh to the international circuit, Gabriel Mendes De Souza and Priscila Barreto De Souza raced in the PR3 men’s pair and PR3 mixed double sculls respectively at World Cup II last year.
South Korea bring a different line up to the one that raced at last year’s world championships. 20-year-old Seungho Lee stays in the stroke seat along with Jiin Bae and the highly experienced Hyounjoo Kang, who, despite being 25, has been racing at senior level since 2015. Hakyung Seo will cox this four and Seonwoong Choi joins in the engine room for his first taste of senior racing.
Uzbekistan are the final entry. Kudratulla Khabibullaev is the only athlete to have race at senior level, last competing at the 2019 world championships where Uzbekistan placed sixth in the C Final.
Prediction
Italy will have the top qualifying spot wrapped up, surely. I think South Korea will take the second spot.
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