23 May 2024

By Göran R Buckhorn

At the Lucerne Regatta, there were 37 slots available in the 19 boat classes to qualify for the Olympic and Paralympic rowing in Paris later this summer. “[T]here were historic moments, heart breaks, and photo finishes,” World Rowing writes on its website.

Here are the results, with countries in bold having qualified for Paris…

PR1 men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x)
FRA, BRA, CHN, MEX, USA, EGY

Women’s pair (W2-)
DEN, NZL, CRO, FRA, ITA, GER

Men’s pair (M2-)
GER, LTU, NED, DEN, CZE, SRB

Women’s four (W4-)
IRL, DEN, ESP, POL, CHI, JPN

Men’s four (M4-)
ITA, SUI, GER, DEN, RSA, UKR

PR3 mixed double sculls (PR3 Mix2x)
UKR, BRA, THA

Lightweight women’s double sculls (LW2x)
FRA, GRE, AUS, ITA, SUI, ESP

Lightweight men’s double sculls (LM2x)
FRA, GRE, GER, POL, POR, AUT

PR2 mixed double sculls (PR2 Mix2x)
FRA, ISR, GER, BRA, USA, THA

Women’s double sculls (W2x)
CZE, GBR, GER, RSA, SUI, POL

Men’s double sculls (M2x)
USA, SRB, AUS, SWE, GRE, MDA

PPR3 mixed coxed four (PR3 Mix4+)
ITA, BRA, ESP, UZB, KOR, MEX

Women’s quadruple sculls (W4x)
USA, UKR, CAN, FRA, POL, NZL

Men’s quadruple sculls (M4x)
NOR, EST, USA, FRA, UKS, AUS

Men’s single sculls (M1x)
ROU, USA, ITA, NOR, GBR, IRL

Women’s eight (W8+)
ITA, DEN, CHN, GER

Women’s single sculls (W1x)
ESP, SUI, SLO, CZE, IRL, JPN

Men’s eight (M8+)
USA, ITA, CAN, AUT

PR1 women’s single sculls (PR1 W1x)
UZB, NED, SWE, ARG, CAN, DEN
Mukhayyo Abdusattarova, of Uzbekistan, crossed the finish line first being the only one qualifying for Paris in this boat class. However, a protest was handed in to the Classification Advisory Panel (CAP) concerning the classification of the UZB rower. The quota allocation for the Paralympic Games has been postponed pending a decision on the protest. A decision was not reached when this article was posted.

The following is taken from World Rowing website, but has been edited:

Para success for France
In the PR1 men’s single sculls, France’s Alexis Sanchez successfully qualified for his first ever Paralympic Games. But there was more success for the Para rowers from the host country of this year’s Paralympic Games when Benjamin Daviet and Perle Bouge crossed the line first in the PR2 mixed double sculls. While it will be the fourth Paralympic Regatta for Bouge, the qualification was particularly impressive for newcomer Daviet who made his international debut just a few weeks ago at the European Rowing Championships, having previously completed in three Paralympic Winter Games where he has collected five gold, four silver and a bronze medal in biathlon and cross-country skiing, along with multiple world championship and world cup medals. That makes it a perfect 5/5 for the home nation at the Paralympic Games – France will be the only nation that will have a boat competing in all five Paralympic boat classes in Paris.

Heart break for Sanita Puspure
After a couple of seasons racing in bigger boats, Sanita Puspure, of Ireland, was back in the single sculls hoping to qualify to race that boat for a fourth Olympic Games. Puspure had looked strong throughout the early stages of the regatta and hopes were high. While she was in the led in the final for the first three quarters, in the final 500m, she appeared to just run out of steam which allowed Virginia Diaz Rivas of Spain and Aurelia-Maxima Janzen of Switzerland to scull through into the top two places and secure Olympic qualification.

No qualification, but happiness for Borch
Having looked promising throughout the regatta, it wasn’t to be a fourth Olympics for Norway’s Kjetil Borch in the men’s single sculls. Mihai Chiruta took the win, securing Romania’s twelfth qualification in the Olympic boat classes. It was the first time Romania had a sculler in the men’s single at the Olympics. Jacob Plihal took second place to confirm the slot for the USA. While Borch must have been devastated to miss out, things looked up when he came off the water as he went down on one knee to propose to former French rower Alice Mayne. She said yes! Alice said: “It was absolutely a surprise. Even if it is something we had talked about, it was not on the plan right now. Especially when he is racing, he is very focused.”

Reigning Olympic Champions miss out
It was a surprise to see the reigning Olympic Champions and silver medallists Italy and France having to attempt to qualify here for the lightweight women’s double sculls, and unfortunately, they ended up in the same heat. France got the better of Italy in the heat which meant Italy had to come through the repechage. In the final, while Claire Bove and Laura Tarantola qualified for a home Games, the reigning Olympic Champions Valentini Rodini and Federica Cesarini missed out.

History makers in the big boats
With four crews racing for two places in the women’s eight, the two crews that secured the qualifying places both made history. Italy led from the start and crossed the line comfortably ahead while Denmark overhauled China in the closing stages to take the all-important second place by just 0.19 seconds. For both Italy and Denmark, it will be the first time ever that their nation will be represented in the women’s eight at an Olympic Games – an even more impressive performance from Denmark, who qualified all women’s sweep boats yesterday! Matching the performance of their women, in the last race of the day, Italy also secured qualification in the men’s eight – the result announced after analysing a photo finish. Italy had got the better of Canada by 0.01 seconds to qualify with the USA having taken the first qualification spot. With Canada missing out in the eight, the country will not have any male rowers competing in Paris.

And also…
– Nikolay Pimenov qualified for his first Olympic Games when he qualified in the double sculls for Serbia. That puts a Nikolay Pimenov back at the Olympics for the first time in 32 years, after Nikolay’s legendary father, rowing for Russia and sharing the same name, finished 15th at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games in the men’s pair.
– Tonu Endrekson qualified for his sixth Olympic Games when the Estonian men’s quad crossed the line in second position behind Norway. Endrekson still trails another quite famous Norwegian, Olaf Tufte, who competed in seven Olympic Games, but at 45 years old, Endrekson showed how good he still is, beating people that weren’t even 10 years old when he won his silver medal at the Beijing Olympics.
– The Stankunas twins achieved something that hadn’t been done since 1996 for their country – qualifying a men’s pair at the Games.
– The USA will once again have a women’s quadruple sculls at the Olympics – something they have achieved at every Olympic Games, minus the Moscow Games in 1980, which the USA boycotted.