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Australia’s rowers start their 2020 Paralympic campaign at Sea Forest Waterway on Day 3 of the Tokyo Games on Friday.
Australia will field a crew in the P1 single men’s sculls, the P2 mixed double sculls and the P3 mixed coxed four with the heats starting at 9.30am local time.
Erik Horrie is first up in the P1 single men’s sculls and is considered the strongest medal chance. He has won silver at the last two Paralympics but must face current World Champion Ukrainian Roman Polianskyi in the race for the podium.
First thing’s first. Horrie is in Heat 1 against Russian Aleksey Chuvashev, current world No.2 at 10.10am.
Next up at 11.10am is the PR2 mixed double sculls with Kathryn Ross and Simon Albury racing in Heat 2.
Ross and Albury are a fairly new partnership and gained qualification in Italy in June. Just being here is considered a success but making the final is their goal.
While Ross is a veteran of four Paralympics, Albury is a relative newcomer having only been rowing for two years. Key competition for them include Great Britain and the US, who they will face in their heat, as well as Denmark in Heat 1.
The heats for the P3 mixed coxed four round out the first day of competition.
Watch the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games live and free on Seven and 7plus from August 24 – September 5.
With very little time together in the lead up to these Paralympics, the crew of James Talbot, Tom Birtwhistle, Nikki Ayers and Alex Viney, along with coxswain Renae Domaschenz will be looking to drive continual improvement each time they race.
While making the final will mean success for this crew, a medal isn’t out of the question after placing 5th at the 2018 World Championships and 4th in 2019.
Canada, the US and Great Britain remain their greatest rivals with the Aussie crew facing the US in heat one at 11.30am.
Rowing Australia Para-Rowing Head Coach and Tokyo 2020 Team Manager, Gordon Marcks, says each crew will have a different set of expectations.
“Erik is a seasoned campaigner. He’s won five consecutive World Championships, he’s our most successful Paralympian with two silver medals, so he has a very high expectation of his performance so I think it’s fair to say that we are expecting a medal result,” Marcks said.
“The PR2 double of Kat Ross and Simon Albury, they come from a totally different space where Kat, although having won individual championships in non-Paralympic events, we’ve been on the hunt for a male partner for her and then the partner that she has now is relatively new and then they also qualified late.
“We know that they performed well enough to qualify first up and if that was the result then realistically they’d be doing well to make the final. We didn’t make the final in Rio last time around, so a final performance would be a huge achievement for them but just being here is OK.
“With the (mixed coxed) four we’ve got people that have raced before but not at the Paralympics. They came from a very competitive group of people so from eight people we had to select four and we knew that the four that missed out were very, very good as well. To see them here and to see them race, for me, is a satisfying achievement.
“They were fourth at the 2019 World Championships and could just be pushing into the medals. We also know we have very strong medal performers in Canada, the US and Great Britain and whether they can crack into that or not, we just have to let that run its course.”
Watch the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games live and free on Seven and 7plus from August 24 – September 5.
The format of the regatta will see the first boat across the line in each heat progress straight to the A Final on Sunday, while the remaining crews face off on Saturday in the repechage.
The winner and runner-up of those races proceed to the gold medal race, and the remaining boats compete in the B Final.
By: Jodie Hawkins, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 27 August 2021
