The International Rowing Federation, FISA, has announced the entries for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, a week before the commencement of the Paralympics.
As per the qualification, 96 para-rowers from 26 countries are scheduled to compete at the regatta course on the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon in the heart of Rio. The previous version of Paralympic Games had 23 countries participating in regatta which means there is an increase of 3 countries this year in participation. For the qualifiers, 36 countries competed this edition compared to 28 during the London 2012 Paralympics.
As per the schedule of competition, the para men’s single sculls has the reigning World Champion Erik Horrie of Australia lining up against the 2012 Paralympic Champion Cheng Huang of China. The Chinese has done minimal racing during this Olympic cycle whereas the Aussie, in the meantime, has pocketed three World Champion titles.
Moving over to other disciplines, in the para women’s single sculls a showdown is likely between current World Champion, Moran Samuel of Israel and winner of this year’s World Rowing Cup III Rachel Morris of Great Britain. Also appearing in the regatta is Birgit Skarstein of Norway who was third at last year’s World Rowing Championships.
In another discipline of the event, Gavin Bellis and Kathryn Ross of Australia come into the para mixed double sculls as three-time consecutive World Champions. Earlier this year, however, they were beaten by France’s Perle Bouge and Stephane Tardieu. These two are the prospective competitor for the top position at the podium.
Scanning through the para mixed coxed four, which has been dominated by Great Britain in recent years, but they missed the chance to race the ever-improving Canada in the 2016 season. Zimbabwe makes debut in Paralympics under this category.
After suspension of the Russian Paralympic Committee and Russian Para athletes from participating at the Games, the two qualification slots vacated by suspended team have been re-allocated by the IPC to GER in the ASM1x and USA in the TAMix2x.
The schedule of the para-rowing regatta will be from September 9 to 11, 2016 with 12 September available as a reserve day for any contingent changes. Regatta are scheduled at 8:30 am to 10:30am daily (Brazil Time). The details about entries for the Paralympic para-rowing regatta are now available at this link: http://bit.ly/2c2C9yR