Paralympic Rowing Gets Underway Friday Morning in Tokyo

Paralympic Rowing Gets Underway
Friday Morning in Tokyo

All four U.S. crews will take to the water on Friday morning starting at 9:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday) as racing at the Sea Forest Waterway gets underway at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.
 
The U.S. will have crews competing in each boat

class including the PR1 men's single sculls, PR1 women's single sculls, PR2 mixed double sculls and PR3 mixed four with coxswain. In 2016, the Americans won silver in the four.
 
Hallie Smith (Washington D.C./Smith College) will get things started in the first race of the day. Smith will race scullers from France, Korea, Belarus, Brazil and Norway in the first of two heats, with the winner advancing directly to Sunday's final and the remaining boats heading to Saturday's repechages. Smith won a bronze medal in the event at the 2018 World Rowing Championships, before finishing sixth in 2019. Norway's Birgit Skarstein is the reigning world champion in the event (2019) and also won gold at this year's European Championships. France's Nathalie Benoit finished second at the 2019 World Championships and third at this year's European Championships.
 
In the PR1 men's single sculls, Blake Haxton (Columbus, Ohio/Ohio State University) returns to the single for his second Paralympic Games, having finished fourth in the arms-only men's single sculls in 2016. He finished seventh in the PR1 event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships and fourth in 2018. Haxton will be racing in the second of two heats against scullers from Nigeria, Israel, Sri Lanka, Great Britain and Ukraine, with the winner moving on to the final and the remaining scullers going to the repechages. Ukraine's Roman Polianskyi is the defending Paralympic champion. He also won the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships. In addition to rowing, Haxton will be competing for the U.S. in para canoe in Tokyo, the lone U.S. Paralympian competing in two different sports. 
 
In the PR2 mixed double sculls, two-time Paralympian Laura Goodkind (Los Angeles, Calif./Whittier College) and first-time Paralympian Russell Gernaat (Redwood City, Calif.) will take on crews from Poland, Uzbekistan, Australia, Great Britain and Ukraine. The winner will advance directly to the final, with the remaining crews going to the repechages. Goodkind and Gernaat finished eighth in the event at the 2019 World Rowing Championships, with Great Britain taking the gold medal.
 
In the PR3 mixed four with coxswain, the U.S. crew of coxswain Karen Petrik (Glastonbury, Conn./University of Rhode Island), Dani Hansen (Patterson, Calif./University of Washington), John Tanguay (Pennington, N.J./Columbia University), Charley Nordin (Alameda, Calif./Gonzaga University) and Allie Reilly (North Kingstown, R.I./University of Rhode Island) begins its quest to end Great Britain's stranglehold on the gold medal. The U.S., which has won six consecutive silver medals in the event including at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, will race against crews from Israel, Spain, Ukraine, Australia and Canada in the first of two heats. The winner moves on to the final, while the remaining crews will race in the repechages. Great Britain has won the event six consecutive years including at the last world championships in 2019.

Friday morning's racing will be streamed live on NBCOlympics.com starting at 9:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Thursday). Individuals wishing to watch will need to login through their television provider to view the online streaming.

Racing will continue on Saturday morning Tokyo time with repechages. Finals will be held Sunday.
 
Click here for the full schedule on the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 website, and click here for USRowing's Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 coverage page.