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All three Australian rowing crews have secured their places in the A Finals of the Paralympic Games, after Erik Horrie and the mixed coxed four crew won their respective repechage rounds on Saturday.
They will join Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager who yesterday qualified straight through to the A Final for the first ever mixed double sculls.
Horrie, the self-proclaimed ‘grandfather’ of Australian Para-rowing, took the next crucial step towards claiming his first ever gold medal, finishing first in the PR1 men’s single scull to put him through to the A-Final.
The three-time Paralympic silver medallist has his eyes firmly set on finishing atop of the podium but is under no illusions what it’s going to take.
“It’s great just to tick that box and get through to the A Final. Now I can go back to the Village, debrief with the coach and focus on tomorrow,” Horrie said.
“It’s about saving energy and being smart because tomorrow’s another day. We’ll come out and see how it goes.
“It would mean everything to win that gold medal. But you can’t take for granted the other five guys in the field. We saw yesterday that Benjamin Pritchard (GBR) put down a cracking time and that’s what it’s going to take. As they say… the pain gauge is going to be very large tomorrow.”
With three Paralympic silver medals to his name, Horrie is hoping to use his years of experience to his advantage as he again steps onto the biggest stage for his sport.
“One of the biggest things is the excitement of the Paralympics and not letting that get too much… it’s the Village, the media, knowing how the officials work, all of that sort of stuff you get used to when you come to a Paralympic Games,” he said.
“This is very different from a World Championships. Everyone finds the speed when you put on the uniform, doesn’t matter what country you’re from, you find that extra 10 seconds, you find that extra bit of energy to sprint to the line and I think that’s the part we love about the Paralympic Games.”
Australia’s PR3 mixed coxed four team of Tokyo Paralympians Alexandra Viney and Tom Birtwhistle together with debutants Susannah Lutze, Tobiah Goffsassen and Hannah Cowap won their repechage with their best international time to date, to secure their spot in Saturday’s A Final.
Birtwhistle couldn’t be happier with what the crew were able to deliver, giving a very Aussie response post-race.
“There are a few cookies left in the tank,” he said. “We could have probably gone out like a bunch of galahs but we just found our rhythm… it was all about working together rather than trying to go too hard.
“This boat, these people and this journey, it’s probably been a work in progress over five years and there have been people coming in and out of the boat and we have to thank all the people who have done their part to get us here.
“This crew is harmonising really well and tomorrow you would expect us to be coming out hard and finding our mid pace rhythm and looking to get ourselves on the podium,” he said.
Paralympic debutant Lutze echoed her teammates sentiments, pleased the crew could deliver to the race plan despite the tricky conditions.
“Coming into a repechage it’s do or die, so it was another flat out race. We had another really good race in the heat yesterday going right to the line with the French so we were a little knackered going into today,” Lutze said.
“It was just about working together as a team and making sure we’re staying within our rhythm and keeping our heads in our boat.
“It got pretty choppy out there today with the wind picking up, which was a bit of an unexpected situation, but we managed to pull through with a result we’re happy with,” she said.
The rowing program will come to a finale on Sunday with all three Australian crews vying for medals.
11:30am (7.30pm AEST) – PR1 men’s single sculls, Erik Horrie
12:10pm (8.10pm AEST) – PR3 mixed double sculls, Nikki Ayers and Jed Altschwager
12:30pm (8.30pm AEST) – PR3 mixed coxed four, Alexandra Viney and Tom Birtwhistle will team up with debutants Susannah Lutze, Tobiah Goffsassen and Hannah Cowap
Watch the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games on the 9Network and 9Now live and free, and on Stan Sport till September 8
By: Lauren Ryan, Paralympics Australia
Published: 31 August 2024
