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Erik Horrie will race for gold in the PR1 Men’s Single Sculls final on Sunday after cruising to an eight-second win in the first repechage at the Sea Forest Waterway.
Also racing in the A Final will be the Australian PR3 Mixed Coxed Four crew after coming from behind to take the win over Italy in their repechage race.
Unfortunately for the Australian PR2 Mixed Double Sculls crew, they were beaten by the Netherlands and Poland and will race in the B Final.
The balance between conserving energy but securing their place in the final was top-of-mind in quite challenging conditions with high heat and humidity.
Horrie, an experienced campaigner, posted a much improved time from the heat, finishing over a minute faster today with a time of 9:20.61. There was still plenty left in the tank for Sunday with Horrie conscious to not race the clock.
“These two races don’t really mean anything, you don’t win a medal in the heats or the repechage so the final’s the one that you have to race so you’ve got to take it as easy as you can,” Horrie said.
“Today’s race was good, but I was never looking at a time. It was just about getting one of those places and getting over the line.”
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The race in the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls was a three way battle between Australia, the Netherlands and Poland, who were all within striking distance for much of the 2000m. With under 1000m to go the Polish crew snagged a buoy, momentarily stopping their momentum and the Australians took advantage and pushed into second place. But the Polish crew stormed back, pipping the Australians at the post to take second behind the Netherlands and secure a spot in the A Final.
Kathryn Ross said the conditions and a lack of time training together with partner Simon Albury contributed to their performance.
“It was difficult conditions, quite different from yesterday, it showed how more experienced crews could tackle those kinds of conditions. We did the best that we could with the preparation we had, I mean we only had two weeks together before we came here so, you know, we gave it everything we had, we stuck with them and unfortunately we just didn’t have enough gas at the back end.”
The Australian PR3 Mixed Coxed Four stormed past Italy in the final 250m to take the win in their repechage and land a spot in the A Final. They continued to build their rhythm as a crew, posting a time of 7:06.98, an improvement of almost 24 seconds on their heat.
Coxswain Renae Domaschenz said the crew was improving with each race opportunity and the day’s result was satisfying.
“It felt really good, we’re really pleased, being able to execute our plans today, read the conditions well, be patient and find the right moment to squeeze on that little bit more than we did yesterday,” Domaschenz said.
“We haven’t spent much time together as a crew so our motivation is each day a little bit better, a little cleaner, a little bit stronger, and I feel that we are really doing that as a crew which is awesome.”
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The final day of Para-rowing starts on Sunday at 9.30am local/10.30am AEST.
At 10.10am local/11.10am AEST Ross and Albury race in the PR2 Mixed Double Sculls B Final against Brazil and the US.
Horrie races at 11.10am local/12.10pm AEST against Ukrainian and current world champion Roman Polianskyi, Brazilian Rene Campos Pereira, who qualified first in Horrie’s heat, and Ben Pritchard of Great Britain, who rowed a PB of 9:14.61 in the repechage.
At 11.50am local/12.50pm AEST the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four will see Australia battle against powerhouses Great Britain and the US for a spot on the podium.
By: Jodie Hawkins, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 28 August 2021
