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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This showdown will be brutal. With just one sculler punching their ticket to Paris the gods of Lucerne will decide the fate of these eight Paralympic hopefuls.
Eyes are quickly drawn to Eva Mol from the Netherlands who arrived on the international scene just last year. Mol finished second in the B Final at last year’s world championships, meaning she was one place outside of the automatic qualifiers from the event in Belgrade. It wasn’t a large margin, just four seconds behind Brazil’s Claudia Cicero Sabino and, as such, Mol could tentatively be handed the tag of ‘favourite’ ahead of the rest of the field, given her lack of racing experience and the opportunity to see a large progression curve.
If anyone will beat Mol, and the Dutch sculler by no means has this wrapped up, it will be Sweden’s Ebba Einarsson. Despite being 15 years younger than Mol, Einarsson has been racing internationally since 2018. A few short weeks ago at the European Paralympic Qualification Regatta, Einarsson could only manage a second place performance, 25 seconds behind the victorious Swiss sculler. With Einarsson and Mol having not competed directly against each other since the world championships, that showdown is set to be superb.
Also in Belgrade last year was Argentina’s Brenda Sardon. The Tokyo Paralympian has struggled with form and has raced few and far between in recent years. Fifth in the B-Final of the 2022 world championships was repeated in 2023 and with 18 seconds separating her and Einarsson, the Argentinian is very much on the outside looking in for a qualification spot.
Since Belgrade we have also had the regional qualification regattas. Over at the African Paralympic Qualification Regatta, in a field that was won by Asiya Sururu of Kenya, Egypt’s Zahraa Mohamed and Nigeria’s Mary Alayode Oluwatoyin were somewhat off the pace and are unlikely to challenge at the business end of the regatta in Lucerne.
At the EPQR, Denmark’s Chinette Karina Lauridsen was third in the prelimary race and was a DNF in the final. At 1500m gone though, she was some 20 seconds behind Einarsson who finished the race in second place.
Prediction
This will come down to a two-boat affair with Eva Mol doing enough to secure her ticket to Paris.
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