Records fall for ParalympicsGB on Para Rowing heats day at Paris 2024
ParalympicsGB secured two Para Rowing World and Paralympic Best Times and another Paralympic Best Time as the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Para Rowing got underway at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium
Two-time Paralympic champion Lauren Rowles and her PR2 Mixed double sculls (PR2 Mix 2x) partner, former Royal Engineer Commando, Gregg Stevenson, flew down the track in a World and Paralympic record breaking time of 7:56.92 to beat their previous World Best Time, set in 2023. The result means they qualify directly to Sunday’s A final.
Speaking after the race, Lauren said: “It feels phenomenal. We’ve been promising the fans, and importantly our partners, that we were going to come out and do a World Best Time. We’ve been saying sub-8 minutes for a really long time so it’s nice to deliver what we’ve been trying to do for the last couple of years together so this felt really good. Personally, I’ve been working myself to try and do sub-8 minutes and push this field out to where it’s never been before and today we’ve done that.”
Gregg, thrilled with the result and making his Paralympic debut aged 39, said: “I’m finally a Paralympian, I’ve done it! It feels unbelievable, especially having this crowd here and my wife and two boys. The past few days have been phenomenal. I’m really enjoying it.”
The PR3 Mixed coxed four (PR3 Mix4+), Great Britain’s most successful boat, continued its impressive 13 year winning streak also clocking up a World and Paralympic Best Time of 6:43.68. The crew Frankie Allen, Giedre Rakauskaite, Josh O’Brien and Ed Fuller and cox, Erin Kennedy, were the fastest across both heats, and are also directly through to the A Final on Sunday.
Commenting on the World Best Time, and making his Paralympic Games debut, Ed said: “You can’t ask for more than that. We knew with our training leading into today that we had quick conditions. Everything came together for us out there and we performed well in that race. Overall it was a solid performance and we now have three more Paralympians in the crew so very happy to be able to call ourselves that.”
On her Paralympic Games experience, Giedre said: “It’s nice to be surrounded by all the athletes in our Para GB building in the village. We’re proud to represent GB and everyone is incredibly supportive, we just want to add to that greatness. The bar is high across all the sports and we want to match it!”
The PR1 Men’s single sculls (PR1 M1x) saw GB’s Benjamin Pritchard achieve a Paralympic Best Time of 8:51.26 and take the one direct place in Sunday’s final. After the race, he said: “I’m really happy. It’s always good to cross the line first but most importantly the times I’ve seen in training are coming to fruition during racing. It’s good to not worry about who is around you, focus on what you’re doing, and trust your body because you know what you’ve been doing in the winter and you know what will work.
“I set a Paralympic Best Time in the repechage in Tokyo and now I’ve done it here, but the goal is a World Record. Nick (Nick Baker, Coach) will tell me off for stopping before the line, but sometimes you need to save a little bit of energy and savour the moment. That’s why I stopped – I knew I had the win, the roar from the crowd was incredible. There was lighting – seeing the lightning strike, it was just a picture. I sat there like ‘this is cool’. I wanted to savour the moment because you don’t get those much in racing. Today felt like the biggest crowd we’ve ever had at a World Rowing regatta and it’s not even sold out – Sunday is sold out, so it’s just going to get better and better. We’ll hope for the same result on Sunday, and if not I know that I’ve put myself in the fight of trying to get a medal and race against the world’s best, which is what you want to do.”
Making their Paralympics GB debut in the PR3 Mixed double sculls (PR3 Mix 2x) were Sam Murray and Annie Caddick who missed out on the automatic qualification spot by just under a second, and will now race again in Saturday’s repechage. Sam said: “It feels good to get our first run down and get the experience of racing here – it’s the start of our weekend.”
Annie added: “We know we’re in the mix, that’s what that race taught us. We know we have to be a bit stronger off the start, but now we can learn from this and hopefully deliver tomorrow in the repechage.”
